Bible Strands
Psalms 74:15
You broke open the fountain and the flood; You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God during a period of national crisis, sandwiching this declaration between the crushing of Leviathan in verse 14 and the affirmation of God’s ownership of the day and night in verse 16.
The words — בָ֭קַעְתָּ (Va.ka'.ta) literally means "you broke open," and ה֝וֹבַ֗שְׁתָּ (ho.Vash.ta) means "you dried up," denoting direct, forceful divine intervention on water sources.
The thread — The text traces to Moses striking the rock for water in Numbers 20:11 and Exodus 17:5, and to the Jordan River stopping at Joshua 3:13.
Why it lands — The verse states that God dismantles natural water systems, requiring the reader to recognize that the same power controlling chaos is the foundation of cosmic order and national survival.
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 cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.
Cross-references
- Numbers 20:11 Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the congregation and their livestock were able to drink.
- Exodus 17:5 And the LORD said to Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take along in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
- Joshua 3:13 When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”
- Psalms 105:41 He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert.
- Isaiah 48:21 They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He made water flow for them from the rock; He split the rock, and water gushed out.
- Joshua 2:10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.
- Isaiah 44:27 who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’
- 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,
- 2 Kings 2:8 And Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the waters, which parted to the right and to the left, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
- 2 Kings 2:14 Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the waters. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. And when he had struck the waters, they parted to the right and to the left, and Elisha crossed over.