Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Psalms 76:3 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 3. 3There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 76:3: The line “There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and…” reaches Selah inside “God breaks weapons in Zion,” marking an ancient pause of uncertain performance.
Read It With
- Psalms 76:1–12
Read Psalms 76:3 with 76:1–12. Read alone, “There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the…” could lose the communal voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 76:1–12, the communal voice carries the movement “God breaks weapons in Zion” as part of “God breaks weapons in Zion.” Its zion-hymn form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 76:1–12 opens Psalm 76 with “In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel” and establishes the communal voice and “God breaks weapons in Zion” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Within that relationship, Psalm 76:3 carries “There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and…” into the liturgical marker Selah, creating a pause whose exact performance remains uncertain.
What Remains True
The lasting force of “There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the…” comes through Psalms 76:1–12 and Book III, not isolation. Wrong and rage may be named honestly before the LORD, yet judgment remains accountable to justice and never turns another person into disposable prey. The local movement is “God breaks weapons in Zion.” The unit's reviewed limit is: The poem celebrates disarmed aggression; Zion language cannot be turned into a modern territorial mandate or sacralized warfare.
How It Can Shape Life
- The practice should match “God breaks weapons in Zion” rather than an isolated slogan. Psalm 76:3 carries “There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and…” into the liturgical marker Selah, creating a pause whose exact performance remains uncertain. Therefore, When “There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the…” voices danger or judgment, verify the harm, protect those at risk, and submit retaliation to lawful and accountable processes.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 76:1–12 — God breaks weapons in ZionSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 76:1–12, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 76:1–12
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 76:1–12.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 76 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 76:1–12
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗