Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, April 29th, 2025
the Second Week after Easter
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

New King James Version

Psalms 78:64

Their priests fell by the sword, And their widows made no lamentation.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Backsliders;   God Continued...;   Idolatry;   Wicked (People);   Scofield Reference Index - Israel;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Jews, the;   Widows;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Psalms, the Book of;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Widow;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Benjamin;   Ephraim (1);   Joshua, the Book of;   Judges, the Book of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Wrath, Wrath of God;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Anger (Wrath) of God;   Asaph;   Priests and Levites;   Psalms;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Shiloh ;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Psalms the book of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
His priests fell by the sword,and the widows could not lament.
Hebrew Names Version
Their Kohanim fell by the sword; Their widows made no lamentation.
King James Version
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
English Standard Version
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
New Century Version
Their priests fell by the sword, but their widows were not allowed to cry.
New English Translation
Their priests fell by the sword, but their widows did not weep.
Amplified Bible
His priests [Hophni and Phinehas] fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep.
New American Standard Bible
His priests fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep.
World English Bible
Their priests fell by the sword; Their widows made no lamentation.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Their Priestes fell by the sworde, and their widowes lamented not.
Legacy Standard Bible
His priests fell by the sword,And His widows could not weep.
Berean Standard Bible
His priests fell by the sword, but His widows could not lament.
Contemporary English Version
Priests died violent deaths, but their widows were not allowed to mourn.
Complete Jewish Bible
their cohanim fell by the sword, and their widows could not weep.
Darby Translation
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
Easy-to-Read Version
Their priests were killed, but the widows had no time to mourn for them.
George Lamsa Translation
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
Good News Translation
Priests died by violence, and their widows were not allowed to mourn.
Lexham English Bible
His priests fell by the sword, and his widows did not weep.
Literal Translation
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows were not able to weep.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The fyre consumed their yonge men, and their maydes were not geuen to mariage.
American Standard Version
Their priests fell by the sword; And their widows made no lamentation.
Bible in Basic English
Their priests were put to death by the sword, and their widows made no weeping for them.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
King James Version (1611)
Their priests fell by the sword: and their widowes made no lamentation.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
His priestes were slayne with the sworde: and his wydowes made no lamentation.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows shall not be wept for.
English Revised Version
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
The prestis of hem fellen doun bi swerd; and the widewis of hem weren not biwept.
Update Bible Version
Their priests fell by the sword; And their widows made no lamentation.
Webster's Bible Translation
Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
New Living Translation
Their priests were slaughtered, and their widows could not mourn their deaths.
New Life Bible
Their religious leaders fell by the sword. And the women who lost their husbands could not cry.
New Revised Standard
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
His priests, by the sword, did fall, And, his widows, were not able to bewail.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(77-64) Their priests fell by the sword: and their widows did not mourn.
Revised Standard Version
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
Young's Literal Translation
His priests by the sword have fallen, And their widows weep not.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
His priests fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep.

Contextual Overview

40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert! 41 Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel. 42 They did not remember His power: The day when He redeemed them from the enemy, 43 When He worked His signs in Egypt, And His wonders in the field of Zoan; 44 Turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, that they could not drink. 45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, And frogs, which destroyed them. 46 He also gave their crops to the caterpillar, And their labor to the locust. 47 He destroyed their vines with hail, And their sycamore trees with frost. 48 He also gave up their cattle to the hail, And their flocks to fiery lightning. 49 He cast on them the fierceness of His anger, Wrath, indignation, and trouble, By sending angels of destruction among them.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

priests: 1 Samuel 2:33, 1 Samuel 2:34, 1 Samuel 4:11, 1 Samuel 4:17, 1 Samuel 22:18, 1 Samuel 22:19

widows: 1 Samuel 4:19, 1 Samuel 4:20, Job 27:15, Ezekiel 24:23

Reciprocal: Genesis 25:18 - died Exodus 22:24 - your wives 1 Samuel 4:21 - The glory Jeremiah 16:4 - die Lamentations 2:20 - shall the priest Ezekiel 7:11 - neither Ezekiel 24:22 - General

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Their priests fell by the sword,.... Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, and other priests; which shows the cruelty of the enemy, not to spare men unarmed, as the priests were; and the justice of God, which pursued these men, who were very wicked, and whose character and office could not secure them from divine wrath:

and their widows made no lamentation; for their husbands the priests, who fell by the sword; particularly the widow of Phinehas, who upon the news fell into labour, and as soon as she brought forth her child died, and while she lived took no notice of the death of her husband, nor lamented that, only that the ark of the Lord was taken, 1 Samuel 4:19, and which might be the case of others; nor could they attend their funerals, or follow them to the grave with lamentations, they falling in battle; and such was their concern for the public loss, that their private sorrow was swallowed up in it. Some understand it of the disrespect and neglect of others, who came not to lament with them, and comfort them, as was usual: one of the Targums paraphrases the whole thus,

"at the time that the Philistines carried captive the ark of the Lord, the priests of Shiloh, Hophni, and Phinehas, fell by the sword; and at the time they brought their wives the news of it, they wept not, for they died even the same day.''

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Their priests fell by the sword - Compare 1 Samuel 4:11. It was considered a special calamity that the ministers of religion were cut down in war.

And their widows made no lamentation - That is, the public troubles were so great, the danger was still so imminent, the calamities thickened so fast, that there was no opportunity for public mourning by formal processions of women, and loud lamentations, such as were usual on these occasions. See the notes at Job 27:15. The meaning is not that there was a want of affection or attachment on the part of the friends of the slain, or that there was no real grief, but that there was no opportunity for displaying it in the customary manner.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 78:64. Their priests fell by the sword — Hophni and Phinehas, who were slain in that unfortunate battle against the Philistines in which the ark of the Lord was taken, 1 Samuel 4:11.

A Chaldee Targum on this passage says, "In the time in which the ark of the Lord was taken by the Philistines, Hophni and Phinehas, the two priests, fell by the sword at Shiloh; and when the news was brought, their wives made no lamentation, for they both died the same day."


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile