What Does Psalm 104:11 Mean in the King James?
They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.
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 spring’s reach is measured by the wild ass: even life no human can manage is sustained.
THE MEANING
The springs give water to every beast of the field, and the wild asses drink. Provision reaches life beyond human care and cultivation; even what remains untamed is included in the flow that sustains the world.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that care reaches only what is tame, cultivated, or under your attention breaks here: the wild ass drinks too.
THE ROOT
יַשְׁקוּ
yashqu
GROWS FROM
שקה
sh-q-h
To give drink, water, or irrigate.
“give drink” in this verse is yashqu. The verb here names water being given to thirsty life, and the same root describes water reaching cultivated ground. The root links a river watering a garden with springs giving drink to wild creatures: provision moves outward to sustain life.
ALSO GROWS
shaqah: To give drink or water; to irrigate.
שָׁקָה
In Genesis 2:10, this root describes a river watering the garden, linking the verse’s springs to water that sustains growing life.
mashqeh: Drink or beverage; also a cupbearer, one who serves drink.
מַשְׁקֶה
The noun carries the same root into the drink itself and the one who brings it, showing how the root gathers giving, receiving, and supplying water.
צְמָאָם
tsəma’am
GROWS FROM
צמא
ts-m-ʾ
To thirst; to be parched.
The verse names thirst as a bodily need met by the springs. A related form can describe parched land, joining an animal’s thirst and a landscape’s dryness under the same root of need.
ALSO GROWS
tsame: Thirsty; one who thirsts.
צָמֵא
This names the thirsting one directly, making clear that the water meets a real creaturely need.
tsimmaon: Parched land; drought.
צִמָּאוֹן
The same root can describe land in need of water, extending the image from an animal’s thirst to the dryness of a whole place.
THE PATTERN
Life-sustaining provision reaches what humans cannot manage and does not sort by human worthiness.
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.THE THREAD
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.The Hebrew root שקה (sh-q-h), meaning to water or give drink, describes the river watering the garden and the springs giving drink here. The water that nourishes a garden also reaches the field creatures beyond its boundaries.
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