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Psalm 78:64
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.
62He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.
63Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.
64Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.
65Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
66He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.
Notice
Priests fall by the sword, and widows cannot weep: within this account of God’s judgment, devastation reaches even the space where mourning would belong.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What do you notice about the widows’ silence after the priests’ violent deaths?
Write on thisWhat would you want to ask God about grief that cannot find tears?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
11 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
1 Samuel 4:21She named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because God’s ark was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.Both passages register family loss within Israel’s disaster, through a bereaved mother’s words and the silence of widows.
1 Samuel 4:11God’s ark was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.Samuel names Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, whose deaths belong to the disaster recalled in the psalm.
Job 27:15Those who remain of him will be buried in death. His widows will make no lamentation.Both passages describe death followed by the absence of lamentation from widows, leaving mourning conspicuously missing.
1 Samuel 4:17He who brought the news answered, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons also, …Samuel reports the slaughter of Israel’s people and the deaths of Eli’s sons, matching the psalm’s account of communal and priestly loss.
Lamentations 2:20“Look, LORD, and see to whom you have done thus! Should the women eat their offspring, the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the …Both passages speak of priests killed amid devastation, with Lamentations addressing the horror to the Lord.
Genesis 25:18They lived from Havilah to Shur that is before Egypt, as you go toward Assyria. He lived opposite all his relatives.The connection is slight: Genesis describes where relatives lived, while the psalm describes violent death and widows unable to weep.
1 Samuel 22:18–19The king said to Doeg, “Turn and attack the priests!” Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who …Both passages describe priests being killed; Samuel recounts Doeg’s attack at the king’s command, a different event from the psalm’s disaster.
Ezekiel 24:23Your turbans will be on your heads, and your sandals on your feet. You won’t mourn or weep; but you will pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward …Both passages describe an absence of weeping amid loss; Ezekiel also names anguish that persists without outward mourning.
Jeremiah 16:4“They will die grievous deaths. They will not be lamented, neither will they be buried. They will be as dung on the surface of the ground. They will be …Death by the sword and the absence of lamentation appear in both passages as features of devastation.
Ezekiel 7:11Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness. None of them will remain, nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth. There will be nothing of value among …Both describe devastation overtaking a community, though Ezekiel’s words here say nothing about priests or widows.
Ezekiel 24:22You will do as I have done. You won’t cover your lips or eat mourner’s bread.Both passages describe mourning left unexpressed, with Ezekiel naming funeral customs that will not be observed.
Where this verse fits
Grief. injustice and anger. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The verse does not explain why the widows couldn’t weep. Their silence is recorded in God’s Word alongside the deaths of the priests.
Now put it in your words.
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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).