Psalms 124:3

Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Then	אֲ֭זַי 'A.zai	H233	at that time · adverb
up	בְּלָע֑וּנוּ be.la.'U.nu	H1104	to make away with (specifically by swallowing) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural + pronominal suffix
quick	חַיִּ֣ים chai.Yim	H2416	alive · adjective, masculine plural absolute
wrath	אַפָּ֣ם 'a.Pam	H639	properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
kindled	בַּחֲר֖וֹת ba.cha.Rot	H2734	to glow or grow warm · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Numbers 16:30-34 But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down qui…
Esther 3:12-13 Then were the king’s scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commande…
Psalms 35:25 Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up.
Psalms 57:3 He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his trut…
Matthew 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Beth…
Acts 9:2 And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring t…
Psalms 27:2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Daniel 3:19 Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego: therefore he spake, a…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 124:1-5

The people of God, being here called upon to praise God for their deliverance, are to take notice, I. Of the malice of men, by which they were reduced to the very brink of ruin. Let Israel say that there was but a step between them and death: the more desperate the disease appears to have been the more does the skill of the Physician appear in the cure. Observe, 1. Whence the threatening danger came: Men rose up against us, creatures of our own kind, and yet bent upon our ruin. Homo homini lupus - Man is a wolf to man. No marvel that the red dragon, the roaring lion, should seek to swallow us up; but that men should thirst after the blood of men, Absalom after the blood of his own father, th…

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John Gill on Psalms 124:3

Then they had swallowed us up quick,.... Or "alive"; as the earth swallowed up Korah and his company; or as the fish swallowed up Jonah; or rather as ravenous beasts swallow their prey; to which the allusion is. The people of God are comparable to sheep and lambs, and such like innocent creatures: and the wicked to lions, tigers, wolves, bears, and such like beasts of prey that devour living creatures; when their wrath was kindled against us; which is cruel and outrageous; there is no standing against it, nor before it; it is like a fierce flame of fire that burns furiously, and there is no stopping it; none but God can restrain it.

John Calvin on Psalms 124:1-5

Psalm 124:1-5 1. But for Jehovah, who was on our side, may Israel now say; 2. But for Jehovah who was on our side, when men rose up against us; 3. They had then swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us; 4. The waters had then overwhelmed us, the torrent had gone over our soul: 5. The proud waters [77] had then gone over our soul. 1. But for Jehovah, who was on our side. Some expositors think that this Psalm describes the very sad and calamitous condition of the Church when the, residue of the people were carried away into Babylon. This opinion is, however, without any good foundation for the complaints made, apply with equal propriety to the persecutions which the Chu…

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The Church Fathers

"Perchance they had swallowed us up quick" [Psalm 124:3]. "Swallowed us up:" they would not first have slain us, and so have swallowed us up. O inhuman, O cruel men! The Church swallows not thus. To Peter it was said, " Kill and eat:" [Acts 10:13] not, Swallow quick. Because no man enters into the body of the Church, save he be slain first. What he was dies, that he may be what he was not. Otherwise, he who is not slain, and is not eaten by the Church, may be in the visible number of the people: but he cannot be in the number of the people which is known to God, whereof the Apostle says, "The Lord knows who are His," [2 Timothy 2:19] save he be eaten; and eaten he cannot be, save he first be slain. The Pagan comes, still in him idolatry lives; he must be grafted among the members of Christ: that he may be engrafted, he must needs be eaten; but he cannot be eaten by the Church, save first he be slain. Let him renounce the world, then is he slain; let him believe in God, then is he eaten...But they in whom the Lord is, are slain and die not. But they who consent and live, are swallowed quick, when swallowed up they die. But they who have suffered, and have not yielded to tribulations, rejoice and say, "If the Lord had not been in us," etc.
— Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 124

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Psalms 124:3

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 124:1-5

John Gill on Psalms 124:3

John Calvin on Psalms 124:1-5

The Church Fathers

Psalms 124:3

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 124:1-5

John Gill on Psalms 124:3

John Calvin on Psalms 124:1-5

The Church Fathers

Keil & Delitzsch on Psalms 124:1-5

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Psalms 124:1-3

Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 124:3