Bible Strands
Psalms 74:13
You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God, recounting His past deliverance while the temple lies in ruins. The speaker identifies God as the ancient King who works salvation on the earth.
The words — The text highlights פוֹרַ֣רְתָּ (po.rar.ta), meaning "you divided," and שִׁבַּ֖רְתָּ (shi.bar.ta), meaning "you shattered." These verbs describe God's forceful breaking of the sea and the heads of sea monsters.
The thread — This motif of dividing waters and crushing sea monsters appears in Exodus 14:21, where God drives back the sea, and Psalms 78:13, where He sets waters upright like a wall. Isaiah 51:9 later recalls this same primordial act of power.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that God’s past acts of power define His present kingship and future salvation. It requires the reader to anchor current distress in historical divine intervention rather than present circumstances.
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
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Cross-references
- Exodus 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided,
- Psalms 78:13 He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall.
- Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the dragon?
- Ezekiel 29:3 Speak to him and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt, O great monster who lies among his rivers, who says, ‘The Nile is mine; I made it myself.’
- Ezekiel 32:2 “Son of man, take up a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: ‘You are like a lion among the nations; you are like a monster in the seas. You thrash about in your rivers, churning up the waters with your feet and muddying the streams.’
- Exodus 14:28 The waters flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had chased the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.
- Nehemiah 9:11 You divided the sea before them, and they crossed through it on dry ground. You hurled their pursuers into the depths like a stone into raging waters.
- Psalms 66:6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the waters on foot; there we rejoiced in Him.
- Psalms 106:8 Yet He saved them for the sake of His name, to make His power known.
- Psalms 136:13 He divided the Red Sea in two His loving devotion endures forever.