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Psalm 78:49

He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.

47He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.
48He also gave over their livestock to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.
50He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,
51and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
Notice

The repeated words for anger make Egypt's plagues hard to read as mere disaster: the psalm recounts God's fierce judgment, reaching even to death.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What troubles you most about the psalm's account of God's anger against Egypt?

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How does naming Egypt in the surrounding verses shape your understanding of this judgment?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Revelation 12:7There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war.Angels appear in both passages, though Revelation describes war in the sky and the psalm recounts God's wrath against Egypt.
1 Kings 22:21–22A spirit came out and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’Both mention spiritual beings in relation to God; the psalm describes trouble, while the spirit in Kings offers to entice.
Exodus 12:13The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you to destroy you when …Both concern God's destructive judgment in Egypt; Exodus also names the blood-marked houses that the plague will spare.
Exodus 15:7In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you. You send out your wrath. It consumes them as stubble.Both describe God sending out his wrath with destructive force against those who face his judgment.
2 Samuel 24:16When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is …Both connect angels with destruction under God's authority; Samuel also records God commanding the destroying angel to stop.
Psalm 11:6On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.Both portray God sending destructive trouble upon people, with Psalm 11 naming the wicked as its recipients.
Lamentations 4:11The LORD has accomplished his wrath. He has poured out his fierce anger. He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.Both describe God's fierce anger bringing devastation, directed against Egypt in the psalm's context and Zion in Lamentations.
Isaiah 63:10But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Therefore he turned and became their enemy, and he himself fought against them.Both portray God acting against people in judgment; Isaiah names rebellion and grieving his Holy Spirit as the cause.
Exodus 10:21The LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.”Both belong to the account of God bringing plagues upon Egypt, with Exodus describing the plague of darkness.
2 Kings 15:37In those days, the LORD began to send Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah.Both describe God sending trouble against people, though Kings names human rulers rather than angels as the agents.
2 Chronicles 30:8Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the …God's fierce anger appears in both passages; Chronicles urges yielding to him so that his anger may turn away.
Job 20:23When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.Both use the language of God casting fierce wrath upon someone, though Job records this description within a speaker's argument.
Where this verse fits

Sermon or Bible study notes. doubt.

One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 78:47–51 and mark each act of judgment

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Encouragement

Take time with the severity of these words. The psalm names God's wrath in Egypt without softening the deaths that followed; judgment belongs to God.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 78:49. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 78 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).