You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters.
Parallel translations
- WEB You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
- KJV Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
- BSB You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;
- 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 14:21Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
- Ps 78:13He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.
- Isa 51:9–10Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?
- Ezek 29:3Speak and say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the middle of his rivers, that has said, ‘My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.’
- Ezek 32:2Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and tell him, You were likened to a young lion of the nations: yet you are as a monster in the seas; and you broke out with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.
- Ps 66:6He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the river on foot. There, we rejoiced in him.
- Ps 136:13–18To him who divided the Red Sea apart; for his loving kindness endures forever;
- Neh 9:11You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the middle of the sea on the dry land; and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters.
- Isa 11:15–16Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.
- Ps 106:8–9Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power known.
- Exod 14:28The waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh’s army that went in after them into the sea. 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.