What Does 1 Chronicles 16:9 Mean?
Sing to him, pluck for him, talk of all his wonders.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works.THE KEY
Praise moves from music to speech, so what is wondrous becomes both song and shared telling.
THE MEANING
Your attention to what God does becomes voice in more than one form: you sing, shape it as a psalm, and speak of it. The wondrous works remain the subject as your voice moves from music to conversation. The verse holds inward musing and outward telling together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that praise belongs only to song: speaking about the works is part of the same response.
THE ROOT
שִׂיחוּ
śîḥû
GROWS FROM
שׂיח
to speak, muse, or meditate
“talk of” in this verse is śîḥû. The root behind “talk” can also describe meditation, holding inward reflection and spoken recounting in one word-family. The verse brings what occupies thought into voiced telling without changing its subject.
ALSO GROWS
lasuach: to meditate or reflect
לָשׂוּחַ
Genesis 24:63 uses this form for Isaac’s meditation, showing the root’s inward side.
asichah: I will speak or talk
אָשִׂיחָה
Psalm 77:12 uses this form for talking of God’s doings, echoing the movement from reflection to speech.
נִפְלְאֹתָיו
niphle'otav
GROWS FROM
פלא
to be extraordinary or marvelous
“wonders” in this verse is niphle'otav. The word for “wondrous” comes from a root for what is extraordinary, beyond the ordinary measure. The verse turns song and speech toward acts that remain astonishing, not merely events to list.
ALSO GROWS
pele: a wonder or marvel
פֶּלֶא
This noun names the marvel itself, sharing the root that describes the works here.
pala: to be extraordinary or marvelous
פָּלָא
The verb shows the quality carried by the works: they stand outside what is ordinary.
זַמְּרוּ
zammeru
GROWS FROM
זמר
to make music or sing praise
“pluck for him” in this verse is zammeru. The root gives the verse’s musical middle: the act of singing psalms belongs to the same word-family as psalm and song. Beside the broad speech of שׂיח, it gives the telling a shaped, musical form.
ALSO GROWS
mizmor: a psalm or musical composition
מִזְמוֹר
This related word names the kind of song the verse calls forth.
zemirah: song or music
זְמִרָה
The branch makes audible the musical field carried by “sing psalms.”
THE PATTERN
The works of God are carried through the voice as song, shaped music, and spoken account.
Sing to him, make music for him, and speak of all his wonders.Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and songs of breath, singing and plucking the strings in your heart to the Lord.And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty; aligned and true are your ways, King of the nations.THE THREAD
I murmur over all your work, and murmur over your doings.Psalm 77:12 places talk of God’s doings beside meditation on God’s work, using the same שׂיח root for “talk.” The root links inward reflection with voiced recounting, opening the movement here from sung praise to spoken telling.
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