Bible Strands
Psalms 73:19
How suddenly they are laid waste, completely swept away by terrors!
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God and the assembly at the moment of observing the sudden collapse of the wicked after their period of prosperity.
The words — The Hebrew כְרָגַע (khe.Ra.ga') means "like a moment," and בַלּהֹת (ba.la.Hot) translates to "sudden terrors," framing the destruction as instantaneous and unresolvable.
The thread — This pattern of unanticipated ruin runs through Isaiah 47:11, where disaster arrives without warning, and Daniel 5:6, where terror immobilizes the ruler, while Proverbs 28:1 contrasts the wicked's panic with the righteous's steadiness.
Why it lands — The verse requires readers to accept that divine judgment operates independently of human expectation, demanding a shift of focus from observable circumstances to established authority.
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
How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 47:11 But disaster will come upon you; you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will be unable to ward off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.
- Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
- Daniel 5:6 his face grew pale and his thoughts so alarmed him that his hips gave way and his knees knocked together.
- Job 15:21 Sounds of terror fill his ears; in his prosperity the destroyer attacks him.
- Job 20:5 the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?
- Isaiah 30:13 this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!
- 1 Thessalonians 5:3 While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Revelation 18:10 In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”
- Numbers 16:21 “Separate yourselves from this congregation so that I may consume them in an instant.”
- Numbers 17:12 Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost!