What Does Psalm 80:13 Mean in the King James?

The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.

Psalm 80:13 · KJV

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 Hebrew says the field creature feeds on the vine, turning the language of nourishment into a picture of predation.

THE MEANING

Your life is pictured as a vineyard left exposed: what breaks in does not merely bruise it but feeds on it. The verse names the harm plainly, as the boar wastes the vine and the field creature consumes it.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse undoes the belief that exposure is harmless: once the boundary is broken, what is growing can become food for what enters.

THE ROOT

יִרְעֶנָּה

yir'ennah

GROWS FROM

רעה

to tend, feed, or graze

The verb translated “devour” comes from ⁨רעה⁩ (ra’ah, to tend, feed, or graze), a root also used for shepherding and pasture. Here the field creature feeds on the vine: the same language of feeding that can sustain life becomes an image of its consumption.

ALSO GROWS

ro'eh: shepherd; one who tends a flock

רֹעֶה

This branch shows the root’s caring sense, which sharpens the violence when the creature feeds on the vine.

mir'eh: pasture; grazing place

מִרְעֶה

The pasture is where feeding belongs; here, the creature takes the vineyard itself as its grazing ground.

THE PATTERN

When living growth is exposed, what enters can treat it as food.

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

Song of Solomon 2:15 · KJVThe foxes spoil tender vines, showing how vulnerable living growth is to creatures that get among it.

And 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:

Isaiah 5:5 · KJVWith the hedge and wall removed, the vineyard is eaten and trampled; the breach opens the way to its destruction.

THE THREAD

A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalm 23:1 · KJV

The Hebrew calls the LORD ⁨רֹעִי⁩ (ro’i, my shepherd), from ⁨רעה⁩ (ra’ah, to tend or feed), the same root used for the creature feeding on the vine here. One root holds care that sustains life and feeding that consumes it, sharpening the contrast in this verse.

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