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Psalm 78:50

He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

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.
52But he led out his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
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← Psalm 78:49Psalm 78:51 →
Notice

A path made for anger is a severe image: God’s judgment in Egypt reaches human lives, and the psalm names death without softening it.

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

What questions arise for you when God is described as making a path for his anger?

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How does Egypt’s place in the surrounding verses shape your reading of the deaths described here?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

10 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
Ezekiel 7:4My eye will not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations will be among you. Then you will know that I am …Both passages describe God refusing to spare those under judgment; Ezekiel names their ways and abominations as grounds.
2 Peter 2:4–5For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment;Both passages say God did not spare those he judged, with Peter speaking of angels who sinned.
Exodus 9:6The LORD did that thing on the next day; and all the livestock of Egypt died, but of the livestock of the children of Israel, not one died.Both recount death in Egypt under God’s action; Exodus describes livestock, while the psalm’s verse describes human lives.
Romans 8:32He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?Both speak of God not sparing and handing over life; Romans names his own Son, delivered up for others.
Ezekiel 8:18Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”Wrath and the refusal to spare appear in both passages, giving each account of judgment its severity.
Ezekiel 9:10As for me also, my eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.”Both describe God refusing to spare; Ezekiel adds that he brings people’s own ways back upon them.
Exodus 9:3–6behold, the LORD’s hand is on your livestock which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks with a very …Pestilence is an instrument of God’s judgment in both passages, affecting livestock in Exodus and human lives in the psalm.
Deuteronomy 29:20The LORD will not pardon him, but then the LORD’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall …Both describe God’s anger leading to destruction; Deuteronomy speaks of a man’s name being blotted out.
Ezekiel 7:9My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways. Your abominations will be among you. Then you will know that I, the …Both portray God as the one who strikes without sparing; Ezekiel states that punishment answers the people’s ways.
Job 27:22For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.Both use language of not sparing to describe destruction, though Job’s supplied line leaves the attacking force unnamed.
Where this verse fits

Sermon or Bible study notes. doubt. death and what comes after.

What the Bible says about doubt →What the Bible says about death →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 78:50–52 aloud, keeping Egypt in view

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Encouragement

You may find these words hard to read. They recount God’s judgment in Egypt; they give no warrant for declaring someone’s illness today a punishment.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 78:50. 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).