What Does Psalm 105:28 Mean in the King James?
He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.
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
Darkness here is not the absence of a word; it is a condition the word itself sends into motion.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you now: darkness can be sent and made dense while God’s word remains active within the scene. What you cannot see through is not, by itself, proof that the word has gone silent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that darkness means God’s word is absent or powerless; here darkness is sent under it.
THE ROOT
שָׁלַח
shālaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send forth, release, let go.
The darkness does not rise on its own: it is sent. The root keeps the emphasis on what is released into the scene and the agency behind that sending.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of the waters of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
The same sending language can name waters that restore sight, while here what is sent is darkness.
shulchan: Table; provision laid out.
שֻׁלְחָן
The table carries the sense of provision extended outward, another branch of sending forth.
חֹשֶׁךְ
ḥōšeḵ
GROWS FROM
חשך
Be dark or make dark.
The Hebrew repeats this root in “darkness” and “made it dark,” joining the condition to the act that brings it about. English preserves the sound of that repetition, but the shared root makes the link exact.
ALSO GROWS
ḥōšeḵ: Darkness.
חֹשֶׁךְ
This names the condition that is sent.
wayyaḥšik: And he made dark.
וַיַּחְשִׁךְ
The same root turns the noun into an action: darkness is not only present; it is made dense.
דְּבָרָיו
dĕvārāyw
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak; word, matter, or thing.
The Hebrew form is plural, “his words,” while the KJV renders it “his word.” The root also reaches toward “matter” or “thing,” holding speech close to what takes shape in the world.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The word is not only an utterance; the root can also name the matter itself.
dibbēr: Speak or utter.
דִּבֵּר
This verbal branch makes clear that the word in the verse belongs to active speech.
THE PATTERN
God’s word sets conditions in the world, including conditions the eye cannot penetrate.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.THE THREAD
He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen.The Hebrew verb שָׁלַח (shālaḥ, send forth) appears in both verses: God sends a servant, then sends darkness. The same sending verb carries a messenger and an afflicting condition into the scene.
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