Bible Strands
Psalms 78:63
Fire consumed His young men, and their maidens were left without wedding songs.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist narrates a historical moment of national judgment following Israel’s repeated rebellion, addressing the covenant community with a warning against ancestral patterns of defiance. The passage describes a specific event where divine wrath results in widespread casualty and social rupture.
The words — The Hebrew אֵשׁ (esh) identifies the consuming fire, while בְתוּלֹתָיו (betulotav) specifies the young women. The verb הוּלְּלוּ (hullelu) literally means they were praised or celebrated, indicating the complete cessation of their wedding festivities.
The thread — The motif of extinguished joy and silenced celebration appears in Jeremiah 7:34 and Jeremiah 16:9, where God declares the removal of gladness from Judah. The sequence of divine anger triggered by complaint is established in Numbers 11:1.
Why it lands — The text requires acknowledgment that covenant violation produces immediate, tangible historical consequences rather than metaphorical warnings. It asks the reader to treat divine judgment as a serious boundary and to align conduct with covenant fidelity.
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
The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 7:34 I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”
- Jeremiah 16:9 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to remove from this place, before your very eyes and in your days, the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom.
- Numbers 11:1 Soon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the LORD, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.
- Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven
- Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
- Psalms 78:21 Therefore the LORD heard and was filled with wrath; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and His anger flared against Israel,
- Isaiah 4:1 In that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, “We will eat our own bread and provide our own clothes. Just let us be called by your name. Take away our disgrace!”
- Jeremiah 25:10 Moreover, I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.