Psalms 107:12
in Psalms 107He humbled their hearts with hard labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Therefore he brought down their heart with labor; They fell down, and there was none to help.
KJV
Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help.
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This verse in Psalms 107
Commentary
10 notes on this verseTherefore he brought down their heart with labour. In eastern prisons men are frequently made to labour like beasts of the field. As they have no liberty, so they have no rest. This soon subdues the stoutest heart, and makes the proud boaster sing another tune. Trouble and hard toil are enough to tame a lion. God has methods of abating the loftiness of rebellious looks; the cell and the mill make even giants tremble. They fell down, and there was none to help.
This site's exposition
prisoners in affliction and chains
on Psalms 107:10-16
The second rescue is prisoners in affliction and chains. They sat in darkness and the shadow of death, and this stanza names its own cause, rebellion against the words of God. He brought them out, and verse 16 breaks gates of bronze and bars of iron.
This site's exposition
He humbled their hearts with hard labor
He is the subject of humbled, so the hard labor came from His hand on rebels. There was no one to help, as in Psalm 22:11 and Lamentations 1:7, the cry of one left alone. That trouble sets up the cry of verse 13.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"And their heart was brought low in labour" [Psalm 107:12]. And now fight against lust; if God cease to aid you may strive, you can not conquer. And when you shall be pressed by your evil, your heart will be brought low in labour, so that now with humbled heart you may learn to cry out, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" [Romans 7:24] ...Freed, you will confess the mercies of the Lord.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Therefore he brought down their heart with labour,....
Is the estate brought down with labour, the honour sunk? Have those that exalted themselves fallen down, and is there none to help them? Let this bring down the spirit to confess sin, to accept the punishment of it, and humbly to sue for mercy and grace.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Their sufferings were for their rebellion against (Ps 105:28) the words, or purposes, or promises, of God for their benefit. When humbled they cry to God, who delivers them from bondage, described as a dark dungeon with doors and bars of metal, in which they are bound in iron--that is, chains and fetters. shadow of death--darkness with danger (Ps 23:4).
Therefore he brought down their heart with labour. In eastern prisons men are frequently made to labour like beasts of the field. As they have no liberty, so they have no rest. This soon subdues the stoutest heart, and makes the proud boaster sing another tune. Trouble and hard toil are enough to tame a lion. God has methods of abating the loftiness of rebellious looks; the cell and the mill make even giants tremble. They fell down, and there was none to help. Stumbling on in the dark beneath their weary task, they at last fell prone upon the ground, but no one came to pity them or to lift them up. Their fall might be fatal for aught that any man cared about them; their misery was unseen, or, if observed, no one could interfere between them and their tyrant masters. In such a wretched plight the rebellious Israelite became more lowly in mind, and thought more tenderly of his God and of his offences against him. When a soul finds all its efforts at self salvation prove abortive, and feels that it is now utterly without strength, then the Lord is at work hiding pride from man and preparing the afflicted one to receive his mercy. The spiritual case which is here figuratively described is desperate, and therefore affords the finer field for the divine interposition; some of us remember well how brightly mercy shone in our prison, and what music the fetters made when they fell off from our hands. Nothing but the Lord's love could have delivered us; without it we must have utterly perished.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
He brought down their heart with labor - He delivered them into the hands of their enemies. and, as they would not be under subjection to God, he delivered them into slavery to wicked men: “So they fell down, and there was none to help;” God had forsaken them because they had forsaken him.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Therefore he brought down their heart - Their pride; their self-sufficiency; their self-complacency. They thought that they could do without God; they relied on their own resources, and were self-satisfied; but God showed them that all this was vain, and humbled them, as he often does the proud, in the dust. With labour - With trouble; with affliction; with disappointment; with reverses; with sorrow. The Hebrew word - עמל ‛âmâl - would include all this. Compare Gen 41:51; Deu 26:7; Job 3:10; Job 16:2. They fell down - They, as it were, “stumbled” - for so the Hebrew word means. They were walking along with a haughty air, and a high look, and suddenly they stumbled and fell. And there was none to help - No God to interpose; no nation to befriend them; no human arm to be stretched out for their deliverance. God gave them up, helpless, to the just consequences of their folly and wickedness.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
For they rebelled against the words of God Trouble does not befall a person except because of his iniquity.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיַּכְנַ֣ע | vaiyakhna' | and he humbled | H3665 → | 36 times |
| בֶּעָמָ֣ל | beamal | with <the> trouble | H5999 → | 55 times |
| לִבָּ֑ם | libam | heart their | H3820 → | 595 times |
| כָּ֝שְׁל֗וּ | kashelu | they stumbled | H3782 → | 62 times |
| וְאֵ֣ין | veein | and there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| עֹזֵֽר׃ | ʾozer | [was] a helper | H5826 → | 81 times |
וַיַּכְנַ֣עand he humbled
vaiyakhna'H3665 →36 times
בֶּעָמָ֣לwith <the> trouble
beamalH5999 →55 times
לִבָּ֑םheart their
libamH3820 →595 times
כָּ֝שְׁל֗וּthey stumbled
kasheluH3782 →62 times
וְאֵ֣יןand there not
veeinH369 →789 times
עֹזֵֽר׃[was] a helper
ʾozerH5826 →81 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 2:23After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.
it leads to
- Genesis 18:20–21
Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Because their sin is so grievous,
- James 5:4
Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
- Exodus 3:7–9
The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.
- Exodus 22:22–27
You must not mistreat any widow or orphan.
- Acts 7:30
After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
- Genesis 18:20–21
Through
Psalms 22:11Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
it leads to
- Psalms 71:12
Be not far from me, O God. Hurry, O my God, to help me.
- Psalms 72:12
For he will deliver the needy who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper.
- John 16:32
“Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father…
- Psalms 71:12
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 107; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 5; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.