Psalm 124:7
WEB
Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare. The snare is broken, and we have escaped.
BSB
We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler; the net is torn, and we have slipped away.
KJV
Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
Matthew Henry
Hebrew interlinear
H5315
n-f — breathing creature, animal, vitality
Derivation: from 5314;
properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental)
KJV: any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, × dead(-ly), desire, × (dis-) contented, × fish, ghost, greedy, he, heart(-y), (hath, × jeopardy of) life (× in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-) self, them (your) -selves, slay, soul, tablet, they, thing, (× she) will, × would have it.
n.f — soul
נֶ֫פֶשׁ 756 n.f. soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, appetite, emotion, and passion
1. = that which breathes, the breathing substance or being
2. The נפשׁ becomes a living being
3. The נפשׁ is specif.
4. The נפשׁ as the essential of man stands for the man himself
5. נפשׁ = seat of the appetites, in all periods (46 t.)
6. נ׳ = seat of emotions and passions
7. נפשׁ is used occasionally for mental acts
8. נפשׁ for acts of the will is dub.
9. נפשׁ = character is still more dub.
10. נ׳ in D
H6833
n-f — little bird
Derivation: or צִפֹּר; from 6852;
a little bird (as hopping)
KJV: bird, fowl, sparrow.
n.f — bird
צִפּוֹר, צִפֹּר 40 n.f. bird
H4422
v — be smooth, escape, release, rescue, bring forth young, emit sparks
Derivation: a primitive root;
properly, to be smooth, i.e. (by implication) to escape (as if by slipperiness); causatively, to release or rescue; specifically, to bring forth young, emit sparks
KJV: deliver (self), escape, lay, leap out, let alone, let go, preserve, save, × speedily, × surely.
vb — slip away
[מָלַט] vb. slip away (not in Qal)
Niph.
1. slip away
2. escape
3. pass. be delivered
Pi.
1. lay (eggs)
2. let escape
3. deliver
Hiph.
1. give birth to a male child
2. deliver
Hithp.
1. slip forth, escape (sparks of fire from jaws of crocodile)
2. escape
H6341
n-m — sheet, spring net
Derivation: from 6351;
a (metallic) sheet (as pounded thin); also a spring net (as spread out like a lamina)
KJV: gin, (thin) plate, snare.
n.m — bird-trap
פַּח n.m. bird-trap
n.[m.] — plate
[פַּח] n.[m.] plate of metal
H3369
v — ensnare
Derivation: a primitive root;
to ensnare (literally or figuratively)
KJV: fowler (lay a) snare.
vb — lay a bait
[יָקֹשׁ] vb. lay a bait or lure, then gen. lay snares
Qal lay snares; Pt. as subst. bait-layers, fowlers
Niph. be caught by bait, ensnared
Pu. entrapped
H7665
v — burst
Derivation: a primitive root;
to burst (literally or figuratively)
KJV: break (down, off, in pieces, up), broken (-hearted), bring to the birth, crush, destroy, hurt, quench, × quite, tear, view (by mistake for 7663).
vb — break
שָׁבַר 148 vb. break, break in pieces
Qal 53 break, lit.
Niph. 57 be broken
Pi. 26 shatter, break
Hiph. cause to break out, i.e. bring to the birth
Hoph. be broken, shattered (in heart)
H587
p — we
Derivation: apparently from 595;
we
KJV: ourselves, us, we.
pron — we
אֲנַ֫חְנוּ, אֲנָ֑חְנוּ pron. 1pl. comm. we
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Verses 6–8
Psalms 124:6–8
Here the psalmist further magnifies the great deliverance God had lately wrought for them.
I. That their hearts might be the more enlarged in thankfulness to him (Psa 124:6): Blessed be the Lord. God is the author of all our deliverances, and therefore he must have the glory of them. We rob him of his due if we do not return thanks to him. And we are the more obliged to praise him because we had such a narrow escape. We were delivered, 1. Like a lamb out of the very jaws of a beast of prey: God has not given us as a prey to their teeth, intimating that they had no power over God's people but what was given them from above. They could not be a prey to their teeth unless God gave them up, and therefore they were rescued, because God would not suffer them to be ruined. 2. Like a bird, a little bird (the word signifies a sparrow), out of the snare of the fowler. The enemies are very subtle and spiteful; they lay snares for God's people, to bring them into sin and trouble, and to hold them there. Sometimes they seem to have prevailed so far as to gain their point. God's people are taken in the snare, and are as unable to help themselves out as any weak and silly bird is; and then is God's time to appear for their relief, when all other friends fail; then God breaks the snare, and turns the counsel of the enemies into foolishness: The snare is broken and so we are delivered. Isaac was saved when he lay ready to be sacrificed. Jehovah-jireh - in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
II. That their hearts, and the hearts of others, might be the more encouraged to trust in God in the like dangers (Psa 124:8): Our help is in the name of the Lord. David had directed us (Psa 121:2) to depend upon God for help as to our personal concerns - My help is in the name of the Lord; here as to the concerns of the public - Our help is so. It is a comfort to all that lay the interests of God's Israel near their hearts that Israel's God is the same that made the world, and therefore will have a church in the world, and can secure that church in times of the greatest danger and distress. In him therefore let the church's friends put their confidence, and they shall not be put to confusion.
Cross-references: Ps 124:6 · Ps 124:8 · Ps 121:2