Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Parallel translations
- WEB You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
- BSB You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;
- NKJV You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters.
- NASB You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
- NLT You split the sea by your strength and smashed the heads of the sea monsters.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Asaph recalls that God split the sea by His strength and crushed the heads of the sea monsters, proving His power over chaos and enemies.
Overview
In a psalm lamenting the temple's destruction, Asaph rallies hope by remembering God's past acts of power. The dividing of the sea echoes the Exodus deliverance at the Red Sea, while the sea monsters picture the forces of chaos and hostile nations subdued by God. The same God who conquered the deep can rescue His people again, a hope ultimately secured in Christ's victory over every power.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Exod 14:21And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
- Ps 78:13He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
- Isa 51:9–10Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
- Ezek 29:3Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.
- Ezek 32:2Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.
- Ps 66:6He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.
- Ps 136:13–18To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth for ever:
- Neh 9:11And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.
- Isa 11:15–16And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.
- Ps 106:8–9Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.
- Exod 14:28And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 74:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.