What Does Psalm 104:13 Mean in the King James?
He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.
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 earth’s fullness arrives as water descends and becomes fruit through God’s work.
THE MEANING
The hills are watered from God’s chambers, and the earth is filled by the fruit of that work. Giving and receiving meet here: what reaches the ground becomes fruit, and fruit becomes the earth’s fullness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the idea that the earth’s abundance is self-generated; it traces the fruit to provision flowing from God’s chambers.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׂבַּע
tisbaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׂבע
ś-b-ʿ
To be sated or filled; to reach fullness.
“satisfied” in this verse is tisbaʿ. The verb comes from שׂבע (ś-b-ʿ, to be sated or filled), the same root behind the word for a full person and the word for satiety. The earth does not merely produce; it reaches fullness through the fruit of God’s work.
ALSO GROWS
śāvēaʿ: Full, sated
שָׂבֵעַ
This adjective describes the state the earth reaches: filled rather than merely supplied.
śōvaʿ: Satiety, abundance
שֹׂבַע
This noun makes the verse’s result explicit: the earth receives enough to be full.
מַשְׁקֶה
mashqeh
GROWS FROM
שקה
To drink or give drink; to water.
“watereth” in this verse is mashqeh. The verb is a form of שקה (sh-q-h, to drink or give drink): God makes the hills drink. Watering is shown as provision received by the land, the beginning of the fruit that satisfies it.
ALSO GROWS
shāqāh: To drink or give drink
שָׁקָה
The verb names the same act of drinking that the watering causes in the hills.
mashqeh: Drink or beverage; one who gives drink
מַשְׁקֶה
This form can name both what is given to drink and the one who supplies it, holding provision and its source together.
THE PATTERN
Provision flowing from above reaches the earth and nourishes living things into fullness.
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.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.Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.THE THREAD
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.Both verses use שׂבע (ś-b-ʿ, to be sated or filled): here the earth is satisfied, and there every living thing is satisfied as God’s hand opens. The first shows fullness arriving as fruit; the second reveals that this fullness extends to every living thing.
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