They seem like men who lift up Axes among the thick trees.
Parallel translations
- WEB They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.
- KJV A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.
- BSB like men wielding axes in a thicket of trees
- NASB It seems like one bringing up His axe into a forest of trees.
- NLT They swung their axes like woodcutters in a forest.
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
The invaders behaved like woodcutters swinging axes through a thicket of trees.
Overview
The carved beauty of the temple was hacked apart as carelessly as men clearing a forest. The simile conveys the brutal, irreverent destruction of what was holy. Such violence against God's house intensifies the cry for God to act in defense of his name.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- 2 Chr 2:14the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan; and his father was a man of Tyre, skillful to work in gold, in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, in timber, and in purple, in blue, in fine linen, and in crimson, also to engrave any kind of engraving and to devise any device; that there may be a place appointed to him with your skillful men, and with the skillful men of my lord David your father.
- 1 Kgs 5:6Now therefore command that cedar trees be cut for me out of Lebanon. My servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say. For you know that there is nobody among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”
- Jer 46:22–23It’s sound will go like the serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as wood cutters.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 74:5 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
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