Why have You broken down its walls, so that all who pass by pick its fruit?
Parallel translations
- WEB Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it?
- KJV Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
- NKJV Why have You broken down her hedges, So that all who pass by the way pluck her fruit?
- NASB Why have You broken down its hedges, So that all who pass that way pick its fruit?
- NLT But now, why have you broken down our walls so that all who pass by may steal our fruit?
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 psalmist asks why God has broken down the vine's protective walls, leaving it to be plundered by passersby. The lament now turns to God's removal of His protection.
Overview
The torn-down hedges signify that God has withdrawn His defense, exposing Israel to ravaging enemies (cf. Isa. 5:5). The question why is not accusation but the cry of bewildered faith seeking to understand divine discipline. It presses God to remember the vine He Himself planted and to restore it.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Isa 5:5Now 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.
- Ps 89:40–41You have broken down all his walls; You have reduced his strongholds to rubble.
- Luke 20:16He will come and kill those tenants, and will give the vineyard to others.” And when the people heard this, they said, “May such a thing never happen!”
- Nah 2:2For the LORD will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and ruined the branches of their vine.
- Isa 18:5–6For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife and remove and discard the branches.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 80:12 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.