Psalm 74:5
New International Version
They behaved like men wielding axes to cut through a thicket of trees.

New Living Translation
They swung their axes like woodcutters in a forest.

English Standard Version
They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees.

Berean Standard Bible
like men wielding axes in a thicket of trees

King James Bible
A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.

New King James Version
They seem like men who lift up Axes among the thick trees.

New American Standard Bible
It seems like one bringing up His axe into a forest of trees.

NASB 1995
It seems as if one had lifted up His axe in a forest of trees.

NASB 1977
It seems as if one had lifted up His axe in a forest of trees.

Legacy Standard Bible
Each seems like one who lifts up An axe against the undergrowth of trees.

Amplified Bible
It seems as if one had lifted up An axe in a forest of trees [to set a record of destruction].

Christian Standard Bible
It was like men in a thicket of trees, wielding axes,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
It was like men in a thicket of trees, wielding axes,

American Standard Version
They seemed as men that lifted up Axes upon a thicket of trees.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And you know as The Exalted One above.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
ignorantly as it were in the entrance above;

Contemporary English Version
It looks like a forest chopped to pieces.

Douay-Rheims Bible
and they knew not both in the going out and on the highest top. As with axes in a wood of trees,

English Revised Version
They seemed as men that lifted up axes upon a thicket of trees.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Starting from its entrance, they hacked away like a woodcutter in a forest.

Good News Translation
They looked like woodsmen cutting down trees with their axes.

International Standard Version
As one blazes a trail through a forest with an ax,

JPS Tanakh 1917
It seemed as when men wield upwards Axes in a thicket of trees.

Literal Standard Version
He is known as one bringing in on high | Against a thicket of wood—axes.

Majority Standard Bible
like men wielding axes in a thicket of trees

New American Bible
They hacked away like a forester gathering boughs, swinging his ax in a thicket of trees.

NET Bible
They invade like lumberjacks swinging their axes in a thick forest.

New Revised Standard Version
At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.

New Heart English Bible
They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.

Webster's Bible Translation
A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.

World English Bible
They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.

Young's Literal Translation
He is known as one bringing in on high Against a thicket of wood -- axes.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Why Have You Rejected Us Forever?
4Your foes have roared within Your meeting place; they have unfurled their banners as signs, 5like men wielding axes in a thicket of trees 6and smashing all the carvings with hatchets and picks.…

Cross References
Isaiah 64:11
Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

Jeremiah 46:22
Egypt will hiss like a fleeing serpent, for the enemy will advance in force; with axes they will come against her like woodsmen cutting down trees.


Treasury of Scripture

A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes on the thick trees.

1 Kings 5:6
Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants: and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.

2 Chronicles 2:14
The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father.

Jeremiah 46:22,23
The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood…

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Axe Axes Behaved Blade Cutting Entrance Famous Forest High Lifted Seemed Seems Thick Thicket Trees Upper Upwards Wield Wielding Wood Wooden
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Psalm 74
1. The prophet complains of the desolation of the sanctuary
10. He moves God to help in consideration of his power
18. Of his reproachful enemies, or his children and of his covenant.














(5) The Authorised Version, with the ancient versions, has entirely mistaken the meaning of this verse, though, unlike the LXX. and Vulgate, it has the merit of being intelligible. Literally the words run, he (or it) is known like one causing to come in on high against the thicket of trees axes, which is generally understood, it seems as if men were lifting up axes against a thicket of trees. The ruthless destroyers go to work like woodcutters in a forest--the carved pillars are no more than so many trees to fell. But though this is intelligible, it does not read like Hebrew, and the contrast apparently intended between the signs of the heathen and the signs of Israel in Psalm 74:9 is not preserved. If, with the LXX., we read the verb in the plural, are known instead of is known, and supply the subject from the last clause, we get this contrast clearly brought out:

"They have set up their idols as signs,

They (these signs) are known in the lifting up on high."

"These visible idols are easily seen and recognised as soon as set up, but (Psalm 74:9) we see not our signs."

According as . . .--We have now, as so frequently, to supply the sign of comparison, and this clause with the next verse runs plainly enough--

"As in a thicket of trees with axes,

So now they break down all the carved work thereof with

axes and hammers." . . .

Verse 5. - A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees; rather, they seemed as men that plied aloft hatchets in a thicket of trees (so Kay, Canon Cook, Professor Cheyne, and the Revised Version); i.e. they plied their hatchets with as little reverence as if they had been hewing timber in a copse of wood.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
like men
יִ֭וָּדַע (yiw·wā·ḏa‘)
Verb - Nifal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3045: To know

wielding
כְּמֵבִ֣יא (kə·mê·ḇî)
Preposition-k | Verb - Hifil - Participle - masculine singular
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

axes,
קַרְדֻּמּֽוֹת׃ (qar·dum·mō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 7134: An axe

in a thicket
בִּֽסֲבָךְ־ (bi·să·ḇāḵ-)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 5442: A thicket

of trees,
עֵ֝֗ץ (‘êṣ)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6086: Tree, trees, wood


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OT Poetry: Psalm 74:5 They behaved like men wielding axes cutting (Psalm Ps Psa.)
Psalm 74:4
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