Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
Parallel translations
- WEB You have broken down all his hedges. You have brought his strongholds to ruin.
- BSB You have broken down all his walls; You have reduced his strongholds to rubble.
- 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 hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
- Lam 2:2The LORD hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
- Lam 2:5The LORD was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
- Job 1:10Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
- 2 Chr 15:5And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries.
- Isa 5:5–6And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
- 2 Chr 12:2–5And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the LORD,
- Rev 13:1–7And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
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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.