What Does Psalm 76:3 Mean in the King James?
There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The “arrows” are fiery flashes in Hebrew, and God breaks not only the weapons but the battle itself.
THE MEANING
The verse places the reader in a scene where God shatters the means of attack: the fiery shots, shield, sword, and the battle itself. Conflict does not have the final word; even the battle is named among what is broken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that once violence begins, its weapons and momentum cannot be interrupted: here, the battle itself is shattered.
THE ROOT
רִשְׁפֵי קֶשֶׁת
rishefei qeshet
GROWS FROM
רשף
r-sh-p
Flame, spark, or fiery flash.
“arrows of the bow” in this verse is rishefei qeshet. KJV’s “arrows” names the weapon, while the Hebrew word carries the image of fire and flash. The verse opens with burning projectiles, then ends by saying the battle itself is broken.
ALSO GROWS
resheph: A flame, flash, or fiery bolt.
רֶשֶׁף
This is the singular form behind the verse’s image of arrows as flashes of fire.
reshephim: Fiery bolts, rendered “hot thunderbolts” in Psalm 78:48.
רְשָׁפִים
The same root makes the bow’s arrows feel like hurled fire, not merely ordinary projectiles.
שִׁבֵּר
shibber
GROWS FROM
שבר
sh-b-r
To break, shatter, or fracture.
“brake” in this verse is shibber. The verb reaches across the list from the weapons to its final word, “battle.” What breaks is both the arsenal and the conflict those weapons sustain.
ALSO GROWS
shavar: To break or shatter something.
שָׁבַר
This is the root action that the verse applies to the weapons and the battle.
shever: A break, fracture, or shattered state.
שֶׁבֶר
The related noun makes the result of the verb visible: the weapons’ power ends in brokenness.
THE PATTERN
God’s victory removes the means and power of destruction.
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;THE THREAD
He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.“Hot thunderbolts” translates the same Hebrew root, רֶשֶׁף (resheph), that appears in Psalm 76 as “arrows.” The shared word reveals the fiery force in the opening image: God breaks the bow’s burning bolts along with the rest of the battle.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us