What Does Psalm 104:6 Mean in the King James?

Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.

Psalm 104:6 · 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 deep is not merely around the earth; the verse clothes the earth in it.

THE MEANING

The world before you is pictured with the earth beneath the deep, water standing above the mountains. The image gives overwhelming depth a form: it covers the earth as a garment.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that the deep is only shapeless void gives way to an image of relation: it covers the earth as a garment.

THE ROOT

כַּלְּבוּשׁ

kallebush

GROWS FROM

לבש

to wear; in the causative, to clothe

The Hebrew word for “garment,” ⁨כַּלְּבוּשׁ⁩ (kallebush), grows from ⁨לָבַשׁ⁩ (lavash), “to wear or clothe.” The deep is pictured as clothing over the earth, not merely water beside it.

ALSO GROWS

lavash: to wear; to put on clothing

לָבַשׁ

The verb shows the clothing image from the side of what wears it: the earth is pictured as taking on the deep.

hilbish: to clothe; to dress someone

הִלְבִּישׁ

This causative form names the act of clothing another; the verse likewise presents the earth as receiving the deep as its covering.

THE PATTERN

Scripture uses clothing to make creation’s vast coverings and changing forms visible.

Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

Psalm 104:2 · KJVLight is pictured as a garment, while the heavens are stretched out like a curtain, making creation visible through what it wears and spreads.

Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?

Proverbs 30:4 · KJVThe waters are bound in a garment, echoing this verse’s image of the deep covering the earth.

And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

Hebrews 1:12 · KJVThe heavens are compared to a garment that can be folded and changed, extending the clothing image to creation’s changing form.

THE THREAD

Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

Genesis 3:21 · KJV

The Hebrew root ⁨לָבַשׁ⁩ (lavash), “to wear or clothe,” stands behind “clothed” here and “garment” in Psalm 104:6. The same clothing image moves from bodies to the earth itself: the deep is what the earth wears.

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