Bible Strands
Psalms 89:40
You have broken down all his walls; You have reduced his strongholds to rubble.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God, describing a moment of divine reversal where the king's protective authority has been actively dismantled.
The words — The Hebrew verb פָּרַ֥צְתָּ (pa.Ratz.ta), "you have broken through," acts on גְּדֵרֹתָיו (ge.de.ro.Tav), "his walls," while a second verb, שַׂ֖מְתָּ (Sam.ta), "you have made," governs מִבְצָרָיו (miv.tza.Rav), "his strongholds," and מְחִתָּה (me.chi.tah), "a ruin."
The thread — This picture of dismantled fortifications runs through Lamentations 2:2 and Lamentations 2:5, where God demolishes fortified cities, and parallels the broken walls cited in Psalms 80:12.
Why it lands — The text states that God personally reduced the king's defensive structures to rubble, establishing the physical cause for the plunder and reproach described in the next verse.
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 hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
Cross-references
- Psalms 80:12 Why have You broken down its walls, so that all who pass by pick its fruit?
- Lamentations 2:2 Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes.
- Lamentations 2:5 The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah.
- Job 1:10 Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
- Isaiah 5:5 Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
- 2 Chronicles 12:2 In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem
- 2 Chronicles 15:5 In those days there was no safety for travelers, because the residents of the lands had many conflicts.
- Revelation 13:1 Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.