What Does 1 Chronicles 16:32 Mean in the King James?
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The sea’s roar and the field’s exultation are not scenery around praise; they are the created world praising in its own voice.
THE MEANING
The sea’s roar and the field’s joy are living responses in the world around you, not empty noise and scenery. Its fullness and every life within it take part in a creation that gives voice to God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The earth is mute matter, and only human voices can praise God.
THE ROOT
יַעֲלֹץ
ya'alots
GROWS FROM
עלץ
ʿ-l-ṣ
to exult, rejoice jubilantly
This root names both the field’s exultation and the joy of people who rejoice before God. The land’s joy belongs to the same living vocabulary as human joy; it is not merely a poetic backdrop.
ALSO GROWS
ya'altsu: “Let them exult” (Psalm 68:3)
יַעַלְצוּ
The same root describes people rejoicing before God, linking the field’s voice with human exultation.
ta'alots: “Rejoices” (Proverbs 11:10; of a city)
תַּעֲלֹץ
Here a whole city rejoices, extending this root’s joy beyond an individual to a shared place.
יִרְעַם
yir'am
GROWS FROM
רעם
r-ʿ-m
to thunder, roar
“roar” in this verse is yir'am. The sea’s sound carries the force of thunder, not just a faint murmur. This root gives the sea an active voice: it roars with the weight and reach of a storm.
ALSO GROWS
ra'am: Thunder; a noun from this root, as in Psalm 77:18
רַעַם
The root’s noun names thunder as a voice, showing the force carried by the sea’s roar.
yir'am: “Let it roar” or “let it thunder”; the verb used here
יִרְעַם
The verb makes the sea the source of the sound, not a passive setting around human praise.
THE PATTERN
The created world has an active voice before God, sounding praise, joy, or groaning rather than serving as mute backdrop.
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.THE THREAD
But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.The same Hebrew root for “rejoice” describes the field here and the righteous in this verse. The shared word lets the field’s exultation stand alongside human joy as another voice before God.
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