The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.

PSALMS 80:13KJV
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Psalms 80:13 (KJV)

What does Psalms 80:13 mean?

Psalms 80:13 portrays Israel as a vine being damaged and eaten by wild animals. The singer is speaking to God about the harm that has come to the people. The image makes their suffering visible as the destruction of something once tended and protected.

After the broken wall in verse 12, the animals can reach the vine. The boar from the woods and the wild beast from the field picture dangers coming from outside and consuming what had grown there.

The Hebrew behind Psalms 80:13

  • “waste” — כָּרַס (karas): This word carries the sense of gnawing or stripping. It gives the boar’s damage the feel of an animal tearing at the vine.
  • “devour” — רָעָה (raʿah): This word can mean to feed or graze. Here it pictures the wild beast feeding on the exposed vine.

Why Psalms 80:13 matters

  • The animals belong to a larger picture of Israel as a vine. Earlier, verse 8 describes God bringing a vine out of Egypt and planting it.
  • The damage is part of the singer’s question to God. In verse 12, the singer asks why God has broken down the vine’s walls, leaving it open to harm.
  • The picture leads into a request for help. In verses 14–15, the singer asks God to look down and care for the vine.

Where else these words appear

“beast” Hebrew H2123 · used in 3 verses

  • Psalms 50:11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
  • Isaiah 66:11 That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.

“boar” Hebrew H2386 · used in 7 verses

  • Leviticus 11:7 And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.
  • Proverbs 11:22 As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.
  • Isaiah 66:3 He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.

“wood” Hebrew H3293 · used in 58 verses

  • Deuteronomy 19:5 As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live:
  • Psalms 96:12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice
  • Isaiah 56:9 All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.

“devour” Hebrew H7462 · used in 144 verses

  • Genesis 4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
  • Psalms 37:3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
  • Jeremiah 33:12 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.