What Does Psalm 104:5 Mean in the King James?
Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
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
What keeps the earth from slipping is not its own grip, but the foundation on which it is set.
THE MEANING
The earth stands on a place made firm; it is not left to drift or come loose. The Hebrew word עוֹלָם (ʿolām) means an age, a span reaching beyond what is visible, so the verse holds the world’s stability across time you cannot fully see.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that instability is the deepest truth of existence: the earth is pictured as founded and held through the ages.
THE ROOT
מְכוֹנֶיהָ
mekhōnêhā
GROWS FROM
כּוּן
kûn
To be firm, established, or set in place.
The word for the earth’s foundations comes from the family of being set firm and established. The earth is pictured as resting in a place made ready; its stability belongs to the way it is founded.
ALSO GROWS
nakhōn: Firm, established, prepared.
נָכוֹן
It makes explicit the firmness carried by the earth’s foundations.
hēkhîn: Prepared, established.
הֵכִין
The earth’s resting place is not vague ground; it is set in order.
עוֹלָם
ʿolām
GROWS FROM
עָלַם
ʿālam
To be hidden; what lies beyond sight.
“for ever” in this verse is ʿolām. עוֹלָם names an age whose far edge cannot be seen. The verse gives the earth’s stability a horizon wider than the moment: it holds across the hidden stretch of time.
ALSO GROWS
neʿlām: Hidden, concealed.
נֶעְלָם
It carries the root’s sense of what lies outside immediate view.
heʿlīm: Hid, concealed.
הֶעְלִים
It shows the same root at work in the act of hiding what cannot be seen.
THE PATTERN
The earth’s endurance is pictured as a settled order established by God, not something left to drift.
The LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:THE THREAD
Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.The same Hebrew root מוּט (mūṭ), meaning to totter or slip, appears in both verses. Psalm 104 applies that image at the scale of the earth: what stands beneath life is held steady.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us