What Does Psalm 104:18 Mean in the King James?

The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.

Psalm 104:18 · KJV

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 rock that looks like bare hardness is already a shelter shaped for the life that needs it.

THE MEANING

Shelter is already fitted to life: the high ridges shelter wild goats, and the rocks shelter the conies, or rock hyraxes. The hard landscape is not empty of refuge; its very form holds a place for the creatures living there.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that a hard place cannot shelter life dissolves here: the rock itself is refuge for the conies.

THE ROOT

מַחְסֶה

maḥseh

GROWS FROM

חסה

ḥ-s-h

To seek shelter or take refuge.

The word for refuge grows from a verb meaning to take shelter: refuge is not only a location but the act of finding cover within it. Here, the rocks are not merely scenery; they are the conies’ lived refuge.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāsâ: To take refuge, seek shelter.

חָסָה

This verb shares the root of “refuge,” showing the action contained in the noun: taking shelter.

ḥosēh: One who takes refuge.

חוֹסֶה

This form names the one sheltered, linking the act of seeking refuge to the creature that inhabits it.

THE PATTERN

Creation fits shelter into the forms and places that sustain living creatures.

Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.

Psalm 104:17 · KJVThe trees serve as a home fitted to the birds that nest in them.

The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;

Proverbs 30:26 · KJVEven the conies’ weakness meets a fitting dwelling in the rocks.

And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

Matthew 8:20 · KJVFoxes’ holes and birds’ nests show how ordinary shelter is fitted to creaturely life, while the Son of Man’s lack of a place to rest sharpens the contrast.

THE THREAD

To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

Psalm 57:1 · KJV

“Refuge” here and “make my refuge” in Psalm 57:1 grow from the same root, ⁨חָסָה⁩ (ḥāsâ), meaning to take refuge or seek shelter. The goats and conies inhabit shelter in the landscape; the speaker takes refuge in the shadow of God’s wings.

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