You have broken down all his walls; You have reduced his strongholds to rubble.
Parallel translations
- WEB You have broken down all his hedges. You have brought his strongholds to ruin.
- KJV Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
- NKJV You have broken down all his hedges; You have brought his strongholds to ruin.
- NASB You have broken down all his walls; You have brought his strongholds to ruin.
- NLT You have broken down the walls protecting him and ruined every fort defending him.
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 seems to have torn down the king's defenses and ruined his strongholds.
Overview
The king's protective "hedges" and fortifications lie in ruin, picturing total vulnerability before enemies. The lament attributes this even to God's permitting hand. It expresses the depth of covenant crisis that only the resurrection of Christ would finally resolve.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 80:12Why have You broken down its walls, so that all who pass by pick its fruit?
- Lam 2:2Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes.
- Lam 2:5The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah.
- Job 1:10Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
- 2 Chr 15:5In those days there was no safety for travelers, because the residents of the lands had many conflicts.
- Isa 5:5–6Now 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.
- 2 Chr 12:2–5In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, Shishak king of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem
- Rev 13:1–7Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.
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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 89:40 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.