You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.
Parallel Translations
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You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.
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Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
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Thou didst crush the heads of leviathan, Thou gavest him to be food to the folk inhabiting the wilderness.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Psalms 74:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 27:1 In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.
- Psalms 72:9 Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him. His enemies shall lick the dust.
- Job 41:1-34 “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook, or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope into his nose, or pierce his jaw through with a hook? Will he make many petitions to you, or will he speak soft words to you? Will he make a covenant with you, that you should take him for a servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your girls? Will traders barter for him? Will they part him among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears? Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more. Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Won’t one be cast down even at the sight of him? None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine. “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame. Who can strip off his outer garment? Who will come within his jaws? Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. Strong scales are his pride, shut up together with a close seal. One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. They are joined to one another. They stick together, so that they can’t be pulled apart. His sneezing flashes out light. His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning torches. Sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils a smoke goes, as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. His breath kindles coals. A flame goes out of his mouth. There is strength in his neck. Terror dances before him. The flakes of his flesh are joined together. They are firm on him. They can’t be moved. His heart is as firm as a stone, yes, firm as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing. If one attacks him with the sword, it can’t prevail; nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft. He counts iron as straw; and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow can’t make him flee. Sling stones are like chaff to him. Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the rushing of the javelin. His undersides are like sharp potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge. He makes the deep to boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. He makes a path shine after him. One would think the deep had white hair. On earth there is not his equal, that is made without fear. He sees everything that is high. He is king over all the sons of pride.”
- Psalms 104:25-26 There is the sea, great and wide, in which are innumerable living things, both small and large animals. There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there.
- Numbers 14:9 Only don’t rebel against Yahweh, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us. Their defense is removed from over them, and Yahweh is with us. Don’t fear them.”
- Job 3:8 Let them curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up leviathan.
- Exodus 12:35-36 The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing. Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. They plundered the Egyptians.
- Exodus 14:30 Thus Yahweh saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
- Revelation 20:2 He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain His destruction did rejoice them as meat refresheth the…
His destruction did rejoice them as meat refresheth the body.
Which was a great monster of the sea, or whale, meaning, Pharaoh.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 74:14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in…
Psa 74:14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, [and] gavest him [to be] meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
Ver. 14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan] i.e. Of Pharaoh himself. See Isa 26:1 Eze 29:3. Egypt is situated between two seas; and a great part of it overflowed by the river Nile. Pharaoh, therefore, is fitly compared to the master fish, and his captains to crocodiles.
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And gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness] i.e. To the birds and wild beasts, who fed upon the dead carcases of the Egyptians cast upon the shore; the Israelites having first taken the spoil of them, whereby they were provided of many necessaries for their voyage toward Canaan.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The heads, i.e. the head; called heads, partly for…
The heads, i.e. the head; called heads, partly for the greatness of this beast, as that great monster is called beasts, Job 40:20, for the same reason; and partly for the several heads or princes who were and acted under his influence.
Leviathan; Pharaoh.
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To the people inhabiting the wilderness, Heb. to the people in or of the desert; either,
1. To the Israelites then in the wilderness, to whom the destruction of Pharaoh and his host was meat, i.e. matter of great support and refreshment. Or,
2. To those savage people to whom they were meat, because they lived upon fishes, and might eat those very fishes which had devoured Pharaoh’s host in the bottom of the sea. Or rather,
3. To those ravenous birds and beasts of the desert, which after their manner fed and feasted themselves upon the carcasses of the Egyptians, who were cast upon the sea-shore, Exo 14:30, which were properly and immediately meat unto them. And when words can be taken properly, we ought to prefer that before the metaphorical sense, as is agreed by interpreters. And this was a very suitable punishment for this proud and insolent people, that they who were so haughty, that they would not own nor submit to the Lord himself, Exo 5:2, should be devoured by these contemptible creatures, which was a great reproach, 1Sa 17:44,46, and oft threatened by God as a grievous curse, as Deu 28:26; Jer 7:33; 16:4, &c. Neither let any think it strange that the name of
people is given to these creatures, for it is given to conies, grasshoppers, pismires, &c., both in Scripture, as Pro 30:25,26; Joe 1:6, and in Homer, and other ancient profane writers. Nay, here is an elegancy in the expression; for these creatures are significantly called the people of the wilderness, because they are the only people that inhabited it, this being a wilderness wherein was no man, as is said, Job 38:26.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood,.... That…
Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood,.... That is, the rocks at Horeb and at Kadesh, from whence water flowed as out of a fountain, and became a flood, whereby the people of Israel were supplied with water in the wilderness, and also their beasts; and from this instance it may be concluded that God will not leave his people, nor suffer them to want, but will supply all their need while they are in the wilderness, and will open fountains and rivers for them, Isa 41:17 he himself is a fountain of living water; Christ is the fountain of gardens, and the Spirit and his grace a well of living water springing up unto everlasting life:
thou driedst up mighty rivers; the river of Jordan, called "mighty", as Kimchi says, because by its strength it overflowed all its banks and "rivers", and because other rivers flowed into it; this was dried up, or way was made through it, as on dry land, for the people of Israel to pass into Canaan, Jos 3:14, the Targum is,
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"thou hast dried up the fords and brooks of Hermon, and the fords of Jabbok and Jordan;''
see Num 21:14, and the Lord, that did this, is able to dry up, and will dry up, the river Euphrates, as is foretold, Rev 16:12, that is, destroy the Turkish empire, and make way for the spread of the Gospel in the eastern parts of the world; to which reference is had in Isa 11:15.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Leviathan - Pharaoh. The people - To the ravenous…
Leviathan - Pharaoh. The people - To the ravenous birds and beasts of the desert. These creatures are significantly called the people of the wilderness, because they are the only people that inhabit it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 14. The heads of leviathan] Leviathan might be…
Verse 14. The heads of leviathan] Leviathan might be intended here as a personification of the Egyptian government; and its heads, Pharaoh and his chief captains.
To the people inhabiting the wilderness.] Probably meaning the birds and beasts of prey. These were the people of the wilderness, which fed on the dead bodies of the Egyptians, which the tides had cast ashore. The Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, and Arabic read, "Thou hast given him for meat to the Ethiopians," or Abyssinians.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces -…
Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces - On the meaning of the word “leviathan,” see the notes at Job 41:1. The word is used here as descriptive of sea monsters.
And gavest him to be meat - Gavest him for “food.”
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To the people inhabiting the wilderness - That is, the sea monsters were killed, and, being thrown on shore, were gathered for food. The “inhabitants of the wilderness” or the desert, may refer either to the wild and savage tribes of men that lived on the shores of the sea, and that subsisted mainly on fish, or it may refer to the wild animals of the desert that consumed such sea monsters as they were cast up on the shore. There is no allusion to the Israelites considered as passing through the desert, as if they had fed on these sea monsters. The essential idea is, that these monsters were put to death, or were so removed but of the way as to offer no obstruction to the passage of the Israelites through the sea. It was as if they had been killed. The image is entirely poetic, and there is no necessity for supposing that such a thing literally occurred.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 14. Leviathan—A different word in the original from “dragons”…
14. Leviathan—A different word in the original from “dragons” in preceding verse, but of similar import. In Isa_27:1, it is described as a serpent, crooked and tortuous, but crocodiles often present that form. So Job_26:13. These names are not given according to scientific classification, but generally signify saurian monsters of any kind, and are here used interchangeably. In Psa_104:26, it evidently means a mammal of the Mediterranean, the whale, which formerly inhabited that sea.
Gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness— The Egyptians proper held the crocodile sacred, and worshipped it as a god, hence they never ate its flesh. But others, like the inhabitants of the city of Elephantine, in Upper Egypt, of whom Herodotus speaks, (book ii, sec. 69,) freely ate it. But we may take “people” in the figurative sense of Pro_30:25, “The ants are a people not strong,” and apply the term to the wild beasts of the desert. The crushing the head of the crocodile and throwing out the carcass as common food for desert men or beasts, was the contempt which Jehovah inflicted upon its worshippers.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 14. Thou brakest &c. Thou didst crush … thou…
14. Thou brakest &c. Thou didst crush … thou didst give him &c. The dead bodies of the Egyptians were cast up on the shore (Exo_14:30) to be devoured by the wild beasts of the desert. Cp. Eze_29:3-5. For ‘people’ applied to animals cp. Pro_30:25-26.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (14) Leviathan.—See last note.
(14) Leviathan.—See last note.
And gavest him . . .—The crocodile was eaten by the people of Elephantine (Herod. ii. 69), but there is no allusion here to that custom, nor to the Ichthyophagi mentioned by Agatharchides, nor to the Æthiopians (as in the LXX.). It is the Egyptian corpses thrown up by the Red Sea that are to be devoured (comp. Eze_29:3-5) by the “wild beasts,” called here “people,” as the ants and conies are (Pro_30:25-26).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces. Here…
Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces. Here the metaphor is only slightly varied, leviathan, "the crocodile," being substituted for tannim, "the dragon," or "sea monster," as the representative of the might of Egypt. And gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. The corpses of the Egyptians thrown up upon the Red Sea shores (Exo_14:30) are certainly the "meat" intended. Whether the "people of dwellers in the wilderness" are cannibal tribes, or jackals and hyenas, is perhaps doubtful.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in…
Ver. 14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces. It is the Lord who has done it all. The mighty dragon of Egypt was utterly slain, and his proud heads broken in pieces. Our Lord Jesus is the true Hercules, dragons with a hundred heads are crushed beneath his foot: the infernal hydra he utterly vanquishes.
And gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. Not only did the wild beasts feed upon the carcasses of the Egyptians, but the dwellers along the shores stripped the bodies and enriched themselves with the spoil. Israel, too, grew rich with the relics of her drowned adversaries. How often do great afflictions work our lasting good. Leviathan, who would have devoured us, is himself devoured, and out of the monster we gather sweetness. Let us not give way to fear; hydra headed evils shall be slain, and monstrous difficulties shall be overcome, and all things shall work our lasting good.
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Ver. 14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan, etc. It is spoken of Pharaoh's army which God destroyed in the Red Sea; that is, the destruction of the Egyptians was a pledge of the accomplishment of God's promise to cast the Canaanite out of the promised land, and to give them possession of it. Many hardships they were to pass through in the wilderness, but God gave them this mercy as food, not to their bodies, but food to their faith, while they were in the wilderness: therefore, those former great and glorious promises were accomplished. So that former mercies are food that God gives unto the faith of his people to feed upon, till he hath perfectly accomplished whatever he hath promised unto his church. William Strong.
Ver. 14. Leviathan. The Arabic Lexicographers (quoted by Bochart) affirm that Pharao, in the Egyptian language, signified a crocodile. Parkhurst remarks that in Schenchzer's Physica Sacra may be seen a medal with Julius Caesar's head on one side, and on the reverse a crocodile with this inscription: AGYPTO CAPTA, Egypt taken. M. Mariette has discovered at Karnak a monumental stele of Thothmes on which the king says of himself,
"Fierce as the huge crocodile, I made them see the glory of
my God;
Terrible Lord of the waters, none dare even approach him."
Ver. 14. Leviathan is a name given not only to the crocodile, but to the whale and other large fishes. The Zum, or people inhabiting the wilderness, are supposed, by many sensible writers, to be the Ichthyophagy, or fish eaters, who occupied, according to ancient authors, a part of the coast of the Red Sea. The psalmist is here speaking of Israel's passage through its waters; and it is a singular fact that Diodorus, who lived about two thousand years ago, mentions a tradition, prevalent amongst these very persons, to the effect that in the time of their remote forefathers an extraordinary reflux took place, the channel of the gulf becoming dry, and the green bottom appearing, whilst the whole body of waters rolled away in an opposite direction. There can be little doubt that this strange people would have used for food, and various purposes, such great fish as might have been cast ashore on the termination of the miracle. Most writers give this text a figurative meaning, but that is no reason why it may not be also literally understood; for such a mode of speaking is common in the Bible. But whether we understand it one way or the other, we have the testimony of heathens to its propriety and force. If, by the term Leviathan, we believe Egypt to be intended, and by its heads those petty states into which that country was divided, the traditions of India, and the East, inform us that such designations were well understood, and therefore beautifully applicable. Anon., in "Biblical and Theological Gleanings"; by William O'Neill. 1854.
Ver. 14. Meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. May not the exact meaning be that even as the sea monsters washed upon the shore furnished food for the inhabitants of the Red Sea, even so the symbolic dragon power of Egypt when destroyed at the Red Sea, became food for Israel's faith, and even furnished provision for their wilderness journey by the spoil which was cast up by the tide. C. H. S.
Ver. 14. God's defeat of our enemies, and the benefit accruing to ourselves.
Psalms 74:15*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Thou brakest the heads Of leviathan in pieces, and…
Psa_74:14
Thou brakest the heads Of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
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Leviathan
We cannot certainly tell what animal is meant by leviathan, but whatever be intended, it is here used to represent Pharaoh with all his policy and power. Who were the people inhabiting the wilderness?
I. The birds and beasts of the desert. The carcases of the Egyptians became their prey.
II. The Jews themselves. For literally, Pharaoh and his hosts became meat for them by the spoils they took from them. And morally, because they gained from the event food for their faith, gratitude, and hope.
III. Christians to-day. For they are such a people: the world is a wilderness to them, not their rest. And for them many leviathans have been destroyed. Satans power: the curse and condemnation of our natural state. And the remembrance will feed our humility, gratitude and trust. And there have been providential interpositions also. Take note of these things. (W. Jay.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Asaph continues to speak of what God did long ago. He is probably speaking of when God brought Israel out of Egypt and drowned Pharaoh's army in the Sea of Reeds. If possible, these words should be translated literally.
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leviathan
Leviathan is a sea monster. It represents a cruel enemy. (See: Metaphor)
You broke open springs and streams
Yahweh causing springs and streams to flow out of the ground as if he broke open the ground so that they could flow. AT: "You caused springs and streams to flow out of the ground" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
desert
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 74:14 Leviathan: See 104:26; Job 3:8; 41:1, 12, 22,…
74:14 Leviathan: See 104:26; Job 3:8; 41:1, 12, 22, 31; Isa 27:1. Here, the creature’s multiple heads suggest a mythical monster.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.