What Does Psalm 89:40 Mean in the King James?
Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
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 pictures every boundary breached, and names God, not an unnamed enemy, as the one who breaks through.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks from the exposed place: every boundary around you is down, every refuge lies in ruins. It addresses God as the agent of that breach and leaves the devastation unexplained.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that collapse must come only from an enemy outside: this voice addresses God as the one who breaches the boundary and ruins the strongholds.
THE ROOT
פָּרַצְתָּ
paratsta
GROWS FROM
פרץ
p-r-ts
Break through, burst forth, make a breach.
“broken down” in this verse is paratsta. The verb pictures a decisive crossing through a boundary. The same root can describe destruction or an opening that lets someone through; here, every surrounding defense is breached.
ALSO GROWS
breach: An opening broken through a boundary.
פֶּרֶץ
This noun makes the verb’s result visible: the defenses are not merely weakened; a breach runs through the perimeter.
breaker: The one who breaks through or opens a way.
הַפֹּרֵץ
The same root can name the one who creates an opening, as it does in Micah 2:13.
גְּדֵרֹתָיו
gederotav
GROWS FROM
גדר
g-d-r
Wall in, fence around, enclose.
The word evokes fences or walls that mark and protect a perimeter. “All his hedges” makes the loss total: no enclosing boundary remains.
ALSO GROWS
gadar: To fence or wall something in.
גָּדַר
This verb shows the protective action carried by the hedge: it defines what is enclosed and keeps what is outside at a distance.
geder: A fence or wall.
גָּדֵר
The noun makes clear that the verse speaks of a boundary with a physical edge, not just a vague sense of safety.
מִבְצָרָיו
mibtsarav
GROWS FROM
בצר
b-ts-r
Make inaccessible, fortify.
“strong holds” in this verse is mibtsarav. A stronghold is a place built to be hard to reach. The verse says even these fortified refuges are made into ruin.
ALSO GROWS
batsar: To make secure or inaccessible.
בָּצַר
The verb points to the purpose behind the stronghold: keeping danger from reaching what is inside.
fortress: A fortified place or stronghold.
מִבְצָר
This is the kind of refuge the verse sees reduced to ruin, completing the image of protection stripped away.
THE PATTERN
When a protective boundary is broken, what it encloses becomes exposed to access and loss.
Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?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:But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.THE THREAD
The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.Micah uses פָּרַץ (parats, to break through) for “The breaker” and “they have broken up,” the same root as “broken down” here. In this psalm the breach leaves protection in ruins; in Micah, the same breach opens a gate for people to go out.
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