Bible Strands
Psalms 78:9
The archers of Ephraim turned back on the day of battle.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the gathered community, recounting Israel’s past to warn against repeating the stubborn rebellion of their ancestors. The verse records a specific military failure during a historical engagement.
The words — רוֹמֵי־ (ro.mei-) denotes shooters or archers, while הָ֝פְכ֗וּ (ha.fe.Khu) literally means they turned back or fled. These terms describe the sudden collapse of Ephraim’s fighting force during combat.
The thread — This pattern of military retreat appears in 1 Samuel 31:1, where Israelites flee before the Philistines, and contrasts with the rash vow in Deuteronomy 1:41 to fight despite divine warning. Joshua 17:16 further shows Ephraim’s earlier struggles against fortified Canaanite forces.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that covenant unfaithfulness produces tangible defeat, not merely spiritual loss. It requires the reader to examine whether current disobedience will trigger the same historical collapse described in the narrative.
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 children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 31:1 Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
- Deuteronomy 1:41 “We have sinned against the LORD,” you replied. “We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God has commanded us.” Then each of you put on his weapons of war, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.
- Joshua 17:16 “The hill country is not enough for us,” they replied, “and all the Canaanites who live in the valley have iron chariots, both in Beth-shean with its towns and in the Valley of Jezreel.”
- Psalms 78:57 They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.
- Judges 9:28 Then Gaal son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? You are to serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem. Why should we serve Abimelech?
- Judges 20:39 the men of Israel would turn in the battle. When the Benjamites had begun to strike them down, killing about thirty men of Israel, they said, “They are defeated before us as in the first battle.”
- 1 Samuel 4:10 So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and each man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great—thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell.
- 1 Chronicles 12:2 they were archers using both the right and left hands to sling stones and shoot arrows; and they were Saul’s kinsmen from Benjamin):
- Judges 9:38 “Where is your gloating now?” Zebul replied. “You said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Are these not the people you ridiculed? Go out now and fight them!”
- Luke 22:33 “Lord,” said Peter, “I am ready to go with You even to prison and to death.”