Bible Strands
Psalms 89:41
All who pass by plunder him; he has become a reproach to his neighbors.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly, describing the immediate aftermath of the king’s fortified defenses being dismantled. The words — The text emphasizes חֶ֝רְפָּ֗ה (cherpah) = a reproach and עֹ֣בְרֵי דָ֑רֶךְ (overei derekh) = those who pass by [of the road]. The thread — This pattern of public shame recurs in Psalms 79:4, Deuteronomy 28:37, and Nehemiah 5:9, consistently linking national defeat with social scorn. Why it lands — It demands recognition that sovereign judgment manifests as tangible loss of security and public humiliation, leaving no room to separate political collapse from divine action.
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
All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbours.
Cross-references
- Psalms 79:4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.
- Deuteronomy 28:37 You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- Nehemiah 5:9 So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our foreign enemies?
- Psalms 44:10 You have made us retreat from the foe, and those who hate us have plundered us.
- Psalms 74:10 How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?
- Psalms 80:13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and the creatures of the field feed upon it.
- Isaiah 10:6 I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
- Jeremiah 24:9 I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.
- Jeremiah 29:18 I will pursue them with sword and famine and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth—a curse, a desolation, and an object of scorn and reproach among all the nations to which I banish them.
- Jeremiah 42:18 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as My anger and wrath were poured out on the residents of Jerusalem, so will My wrath be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing and horror, of vilification and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’