Bible Strands
Psalms 45:5
Your arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s foes; the nations fall beneath your feet.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses the king in a royal context, following a command to ride forth in victory and preceding a declaration about his enduring throne. The words — חִצֶּיךָ (chit-tse-kha) translates to your arrows, and שְׁנוּנִים (shenu-nim) means sharpened. עַמִּים ('amim) denotes the peoples or nations that fall beneath the addressee. The thread — The imagery of divine arrows appears in Psalms 38:2, while the subjugation of hostile nations parallels the description in Numbers 24:8. Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge the king’s divinely sanctioned power to defeat opposition and establish dominion, which directly supports the surrounding claims of his eternal throne and justice.
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
Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.
Cross-references
- Psalms 21:12 For You will put them to flight when Your bow is trained upon them.
- Numbers 24:8 God brought him out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox, to devour hostile nations and crush their bones, to pierce them with arrows.
- Psalms 38:2 For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
- Psalms 22:27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD. All the families of the nations will bow down before Him.
- Zechariah 9:13 For I will bend Judah as My bow and fit it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against the sons of Greece. I will make you like the sword of a mighty man.
- Psalms 66:3 Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that Your enemies cower before You.
- Romans 15:18 I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed,
- Psalms 2:1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
- Luke 19:42 and said, “If only you had known on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes.
- Acts 4:4 But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.