Bible Strands
Psalms 149:8
to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with shackles of iron,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the congregation of saints, situating the verse between the call to inflict vengeance on nations and the declaration that executing written judgment is their assigned honor.
The words — אֲסֹר (le'.Sor / to bind) and כַבְלֵי בַרְזֶל (be./khav.Lei var.Zel / shackles of iron) specify the physical restraint applied to kings and nobles.
The thread — The subduing of captured rulers recurs in Joshua 10:23 and Joshua 12:7 during the conquest of Canaan, and in Judges 1:6 where fleeing kings are seized and disabled.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine judgment operates through tangible, historical means and requires the reader to accept the saints as the instruments of that enforced accountability.
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
To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;
Cross-references
- Joshua 10:23 So they brought the five kings out of the cave—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon.
- Joshua 12:7 And these are the kings of the land that Joshua and the Israelites conquered beyond the Jordan to the west, from Baal-gad in the Valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir (according to the allotments to the tribes of Israel, Joshua gave them as an inheritance
- Judges 1:6 As Adoni-bezek fled, they pursued him, seized him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
- Job 36:8 And if men are bound with chains, caught in cords of affliction,