What Does Psalm 107:16 Mean?
For he shatters gates of bronze, and cuts the bars of iron in two.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.THE KEY
Deliverance reaches the structures that hold the way shut and dismantles them.
THE MEANING
The restraints around you can lose their hold at the point where they seem strongest. The verse pictures the gate shattered and its iron fastening cut away, making room for movement out of confinement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The barriers holding me are too strong to be removed.
THE ROOT
שִׁבֵּר
shibbēr
GROWS FROM
שבר
To break or shatter.
“shatters” in this verse is shibbēr. The Hebrew verb carries the force of shattering, and the same root describes a broken heart. Its branches connect the destruction of an outer barrier with the breaking that can happen within a person.
ALSO GROWS
nishbar: Broken or shattered.
נִשְׁבָּר
The same root describes the broken heart in Psalm 34:18, extending the image from a physical barrier to an inward state.
mishbar: Sea breakers or surf.
מִשְׁבָּר
This branch names waves that break against an obstacle, giving the root a forceful image of impact against what stands in the way.
גִּדֵּעַ
giddēaʿ
GROWS FROM
גדע
To cut down, sever, or hew off.
“cuts in two” in this verse is giddēaʿ. This verb gives the verse a second image: the iron bars are hewn away at their fastening. Isaiah 45:2 uses the same root alongside שבר for the gates and bars, echoing this complete dismantling.
ALSO GROWS
gadaʿ: To cut down or sever.
גָּדַע
This root meaning shows the bars being removed by a decisive cut.
ʾagaddēaʿ: I will cut down or sever.
אֲגַדֵּעַ
Isaiah 45:2 uses this form for cutting the iron bars, repeating the same image of severed restraint.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance reaches confinement at the point where its restraints are enforced.
I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight. I will break the doors of bronze, and hew through the bars of iron.When they had gone past the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that carries into the city, which swung open for them by itself. They went out and passed through one street, and at once the messenger went away from him.Who makes judgment for the pressed, who gives bread to the hungry. The LORD loosens the bound.THE THREAD
I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight. I will break the doors of bronze, and hew through the bars of iron.Isaiah repeats the roots שבר (shavar, break or shatter) and גדע (gadaʿ, cut down or sever) with the same gates and iron bars. The shared wording reveals a paired action: the entrance and its fastening are both dismantled.
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