Bible Strands
Psalms 74:20
Consider Your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God during a period of national devastation, immediately following a plea to spare the afflicted from destruction and preceding a request that the oppressed not retreat in shame.
The words — הַבֵּ֥ט (ha.Bet) = pay attention [H5027] and לַ/בְּרִ֑ית (la./be.Rit) = to the covenant [H1285] form a direct command to fix attention on God’s established agreement. מָלְא֥וּ (mal.'U) = they are full [H4390] grammatically modifies מַחֲשַׁכֵּי־ אֶ֝֗רֶץ (ma.cha.sha.kei- 'E.retz) = the dark places of the land [H4285/H776], not the settlements of violence.
The thread — The covenant motif recurs in Genesis 17:7 as an everlasting agreement, in Psalms 106:45 where God remembers it to relented in mercy, and in Hebrews 8:10 as the promised internalization of God’s laws.
Why it lands — The text demands that believers anchor their response to widespread violence in God’s covenant faithfulness rather than in immediate circumstances. It requires the reader to acknowledge that divine remembrance, not human strength, is the basis for hope when the land is overrun by oppression.
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
Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
Cross-references
- Genesis 17:7 I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
- Psalms 106:45 And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.
- Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
- Psalms 89:28 I will forever preserve My loving devotion for him, and My covenant with him will stand fast.
- Psalms 89:34 I will not violate My covenant or alter the utterance of My lips.
- Psalms 105:8 He remembers His covenant forever, the word He ordained for a thousand generations—
- Jeremiah 33:20 “This is what the LORD says: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night cease to occupy their appointed time,
- Deuteronomy 12:31 You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
- Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
- Genesis 49:5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are weapons of violence.