Psalms 80:16
in Psalms 80Your vine has been cut down and burned; they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
It is burned with fire, it is cut down: They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
KJV
It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
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This verse in Psalms 80
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
Return, O God of Hosts
on Psalms 80:14-16
The complaint turns back to petition, asking God to look down from heaven and attend to this vine. Verse 15 calls it the root His right hand planted and the son He raised up for Himself. The vine is cut down and burned.
This site's exposition
they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance
Albert Barnes took the rebuke of the countenance as a frown, as if one angry look from God were enough. Matthew Henry said the people were now handled like thorns and briers fit for burning, in place of vines kept and cherished. The axe answers the frown.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Psalm 79 [LXX] is similarly titled "For the things that shall be changed." In this psalm, among other things, is written, "look down from heaven and see; visit this vineyard and perfect what your right hand has planted and on the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself." This is the vineyard of which it is said, "You have brought a vineyard out of Egypt." Christ did not plant another; by his coming he changed that one into a better vineyard. Accordingly, we find in the Gospel: "He will utterly destroy those evil men, and will let out the vineyard to other vine dressers." The Gospel does not say, "He will uproot and will plant another," but "this same vineyard he will let out to other vine dressers." The city of God and congregation of the children of promise must be filled with the same community of saints by the death and succession of mortal beings and at the end of the world will receive its due immortality in all people. This same thought is expressed differently by means of the fruitful olive tree in another psalm, which says, "But I as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God forever, yea, for ever and ever." It was not because the unbelievers and the proud had been broken away and the branches were on that account unfruitful and the wild olive of the Gentiles was ingrafted that the root of the patriarchs and prophets died. Isaiah says, "For if your people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be saved," but through him about whom the psalm says, "and on the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself," and about whom is reiterated, "Let your hand be on the man of your right hand: and on the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself. […]
"Things burned with fire, and dug up, by the rebuke of Thy countenance shall perish" (ver. 16). What are the things burned with fire and dug up which shall perish from the rebuke of His countenance? Let us see and perceive what are the things burned with fire and dug up. Christ hath rebuked what? Sins: by the rebuke of His countenance sins have perished. Why then are sins burned with fire and dug up? Of all sins, two things are the cause in man, desire and fear. Think, examine, question your hearts, sift your consciences, see whether there can be sins, except they be either of desire, or of fear. There is set before thee a reward to induce thee to sin, that is, a thing which delighteth thee; thou doest it, because thou desirest it. But perchance thou wilt not be allured by bribes; thou art terrified with menaces, thou doest it because thou fearest. A man would bribe thee, for example, to bear false witness. Countless cases there are, but I am setting before you the plainer cases, whereby ye may imagine the rest. Hast thou hearkened unto God, and hast thou said in thy heart, "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but of his own soul suffer loss?" I am not allured by a bribe to lose my soul to gain money. He turneth himself to stir up fear within thee, he who was not able to corrupt thee with a bribe, beginneth to threaten loss, banishment, massacres, perchance, and death. Therein now, if desire prevailed not, perchance fear will prevail to make thee sin. ...What had evil fear done? It had dug up, as it were. For love doth inflame, fear doth humble: therefore, sins of evil love, with fire were lighted: sins of evil fear were dug up. On the one hand, evil fear doth humble, and good love doth light; but in different ways respectively. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
): It is burnt with fire; it is cut down; the people are treated like thorns and briers, that are nigh unto cursing and whose end is to be burned, and no longer like vines that are protected and cherished.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
It is burnt with fire, it is cut down,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
It is burned with fire. In broken utterances the sorrowful singer utters his distress. The vineyard was like a forest which has been set on fire; the choice vines were charred and dead. It is cut down. The cruel axe had hacked after its murderous fashion, the branches were lopped, the trunk was wounded, desolation reigned supreme. They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. God's rebuke was to Israel what fire and axe would be to a vine. His favour is life, and his wrath is as messengers of death.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
It is burned with fire. In broken utterances the sorrowful singer utters his distress. The vineyard was like a forest which has been set on fire; the choice vines were charred and dead. It is cut down. The cruel axe had hacked after its murderous fashion, the branches were lopped, the trunk was wounded, desolation reigned supreme. They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. God's rebuke was to Israel what fire and axe would be to a vine. His favour is life, and his wrath is as messengers of death. One angry glance from Jehovah's eye is sufficient to lay all the vineyards of Ephraim desolate. O Lord, look not thus upon our churches. Rebuke us, but not in anger.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
It is burned with fire - That is, the vineyard. This is a description of the desolations that had come upon the nation, such as would come upon a vineyard if it were consumed by fire. It is cut down - It has been made desolate by fire and by the axe. They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance - At the frown on thy face, as if God has only to look upon people in anger, and they perish. The word they refers to those who were represented by the vine which had been brought out of Egypt - the people of the land.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שְׂרֻפָ֣ה | serufah | [it is] burned | H8313 → | 117 times |
| בָאֵ֣שׁ | vaesh | with <the> fire | H784 → | 378 times |
| כְּסוּחָ֑ה | kesuchah | [it is] cut down | H3683 → | |
| מִגַּעֲרַ֖ת | migaarat | from [the] rebuke of | H1606 → | 15 times |
| פָּנֶ֣יךָ | paneikha | face your | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| יֹאבֵֽדוּ׃ | yovedu | they will perish | H6 → | 184 times |
שְׂרֻפָ֣ה[it is] burned
serufahH8313 →117 times
בָאֵ֣שׁwith <the> fire
vaeshH784 →378 times
כְּסוּחָ֑ה[it is] cut down
kesuchahH3683 →
מִגַּעֲרַ֖תfrom [the] rebuke of
migaaratH1606 →15 times
פָּנֶ֣יךָface your
paneikhaH6440 →2123 times
יֹאבֵֽדוּ׃they will perish
yoveduH6 →184 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
John 15:6If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned.
it leads to
- Matthew 7:19
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
- Hebrews 6:7–8
For land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is tended receives the blessing of God.
- Matthew 13:41
The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness.
- John 15:2
He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.
- Matthew 3:10
The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
- Matthew 7:19
Through
2 Thessalonians 1:9They will suffer the penalty of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might,
it leads to
- Matthew 25:41
Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
- Matthew 25:46
And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
- Revelation 14:10–11
he too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and…
- Matthew 25:41
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Psalms
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, IN ANSWER TO THE JEWS 6:7; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 80; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.