Psalms 74:13,14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

Dragons—leviathan— The Hebrew words may mean much the same; only the latter seems to express a more distinguished kind of crocodile. It is under this character that the Egyptians and their king are designed, who were destroyed in the Red Sea, and their bodies thrown out for a prey to the desart nations, who lived on fish, and what the sea yielded. See Mudge and Ezekiel 1:4. The Targum has it; Thou crushedst the heads of the dragons, and drownedst the Egyptians in the sea; thou brakest the heads of the strong ones of Pharaoh. Some commentators suppose, that the people inhabiting the wilderness must mean figuratively the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the land; so that the meaning of this is just as if it had been said that Goliath's curse had been fulfilled upon them; I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. 1 Samuel 17:44. And it appears from Homer's and other poets' use of the phrase, that it was proverbial.

Psalms 74:13-14

13 Thou didst divided the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.

14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.