Bible Strands
Psalms 147:13
For He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses the children within you.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses Jerusalem directly, calling it to praise God (v.12), and this verse supplies one reason: God's concrete protection and provision for the city and its inhabitants. The "you" is the collective community of Zion.
The words — בְּרִיחֵי (be.ri.Chei) is the specific word for the bolt or bar that secures a gate, not a generic "door"; it names the physical mechanism of defense. Paired with חִזַּק (chi.zak), "he has strengthened," the image is of a gate made fast by divine hand.
The thread — The motif of God's provision extending to the children within the household appears in Psalms 128:3 and Psalms 115:14; Isaiah 44:3 extends the same logic to descendants as recipients of the Spirit.
Why it lands — The verbs are perfect tense: the strengthening and blessing are already accomplished, not promised conditionally. The reader is asked to recognize that the security they enjoy is not self-generated but received — the bars are God's.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee.
Cross-references
- Psalms 128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine flourishing within your house, your sons like olive shoots sitting around your table.
- Psalms 115:14 May the LORD give you increase, both you and your children.
- Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.
- Jeremiah 30:19 Thanksgiving will proceed from them, a sound of celebration. I will multiply them, and they will not be decreased; I will honor them, and they will not be belittled.
- Psalms 144:12 Then our sons will be like plants nurtured in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars carved to adorn a palace.
- Psalms 125:2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people, both now and forevermore.
- Nehemiah 12:30 After the priests and Levites had purified themselves, they purified the people, the gates, and the wall.
- Lamentations 2:8 The LORD determined to destroy the wall of the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withdraw His hand from destroying. He made the ramparts and walls lament; together they waste away.
- Nehemiah 3:1 At the Sheep Gate, Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests began rebuilding. They dedicated it and installed its doors. After building as far as the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel, they dedicated the wall.
- Psalms 48:11 Mount Zion is glad, the daughters of Judah rejoice, on account of Your judgments.