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You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one who is slain; You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.
Psalms 89:10 · New King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one of the slain. You have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
  • KJV Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.
  • BSB You crushed Rahab like a carcass; You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.
  • NASB You Yourself crushed Rahab like one who is slain; You scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.
  • NLT You crushed the great sea monster. You scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

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

God crushed Rahab and scattered His enemies with His mighty arm. He has decisively defeated all that opposes Him.

Overview

Rahab here is a poetic name for a chaos-monster, often associated with Egypt, whom God shattered. The image celebrates God's victory over His foes. It foreshadows the ultimate triumph of Christ, who through His death and resurrection defeated sin, death, and the powers of darkness.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 11

  • Ps 87:4I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me. Behold, Philistia, Tyre, and also Ethiopia: “This one was born there.”
  • Ps 144:6Throw out lightning, and scatter them. Send out your arrows, and rout them.
  • Ps 68:30Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples. Being humbled, may it bring bars of silver. Scatter the nations that delight in war.
  • Isa 24:1Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, makes it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters its inhabitants.
  • Ps 78:43–72how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,
  • Ps 105:27–45They performed miracles among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
  • Ps 59:11Don’t kill them, or my people may forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.
  • Exod 3:19–20I know that the king of Egypt won’t give you permission to go, no, not by a mighty hand.
  • Ps 68:1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. A song. Let God arise! Let his enemies be scattered! Let them who hate him also flee before him.
  • Exod 7:1–15Yahweh said to Moses, “Behold, I have made you as God to Pharaoh; and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.
  • Deut 4:34Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 89:10YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 89:10 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.