Psalm 78:47 describes one of the plagues that struck Egypt, in which God used hail and frost to destroy the vines and fig trees on which the people depended. The verse is part of a long poem Asaph wrote to recount Israel’s history, so it is a memory of God’s power given to the nation so they would remember who had rescued them. The speaker is the psalmist, speaking about God’s acts to the people of Israel.
He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.
Psalm 78:47 (WEB)
What Psalm 78:47 Means
The verse names two kinds of loss. Vines and fig trees were slow, valuable crops that took years to establish, and they fed families and provided shade and income. Hail is a violent storm of ice that shreds leaves and fruit in minutes, while frost is a cold snap that kills tender growth overnight. Together they describe a sudden destruction of something that people had worked hard to grow.
The verse does not explain the plague in detail, and it does not offer a theory about how the weather worked. Its concern is theological: the psalmist wants Israel to see that these disasters came from the hand of God. Nature, which the Egyptians worshiped and relied on, became the instrument of God’s judgment against those who oppressed his people.
What the verse does not promise is that every hardship comes as a direct punishment. It is a historical recollection tied to a particular rescue, not a formula for interpreting every storm in a believer’s life. Its lesson is that God is sovereign over the forces that feed and threaten us.
The Context of Psalm 78:47
Psalm 78 is a wisdom psalm, a long historical retelling in which the psalmist, traditionally identified as Asaph, urges the next generation to teach their children what God has done. Verses 44 through 50 are part of a sequence of plagues, beginning with the turning of the rivers to blood and moving through flies, frogs, locusts, and the death of livestock, before the poem reaches the death of the firstborn. The audience is the community of Israel, and the purpose is to shape their memory and their faith.
Read in that sequence, the verse is not a random image of bad weather. Each plague strikes something Egypt trusted, and verse 47 comes just before God’s anger is described as a force loosed against them in verse 49. Seeing the verse as one link in a chain of judgments helps the reader understand that Israel’s story is built on remembering how God acted to set his people free.
Key Phrases in Psalm 78:47
Exodus 9:25
The hail struck throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and animal; and the hail struck every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field.
(WEB)
This verse describes the hail of the seventh plague in Exodus, the original account that Psalm 78 recalls. Reading it alongside Psalm 78:47 shows how the psalmist drew from the historical record to shape his song of remembrance.
Psalm 105:33
He struck their vines and also their fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.
(WEB)
Psalm 105 retells the same plagues in a different poem, and this verse mentions the destruction of vines and fig trees in the same breath. Comparing the two psalms reveals how Israel’s worship kept these events alive in its memory.
A Short Prayer From Psalm 78:47
Lord, you are the one who rules over the storms and the harvests, and nothing in creation escapes your hand. When my plans are damaged or my work seems to be swept away, help me to remember that my security rests in you and not in what I can grow or protect. Teach me to remember your faithfulness the way Israel did, and give me courage to trust you with what I cannot control. Amen.
