What Does Psalm 115:5 Mean in the King James?
They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
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 verse separates the appearance of life from its actual capacity: eyes can be present without seeing.
THE MEANING
A made image can carry a mouth and eyes without carrying speech or sight. The verse exposes the gap between possessing the visible form of life and bearing its living capacity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse undoes is that something is alive or perceptive just because it has the outward shape of life.
THE ROOT
יִרְאוּ
yirʾû
GROWS FROM
ראה
r-ʾ-h
To see, look, or perceive.
“see” in this verse is yirʾû. The Hebrew seeing-root also gives מַרְאֶה (marʾeh), meaning appearance or sight. The verse sets appearance beside actual seeing: an image can look as if it has eyes without perceiving.
ALSO GROWS
marʾeh: What is seen; an appearance or vision.
מַרְאֶה
It shares the seeing-root and brings the verse’s central gap into view: appearance does not guarantee perception.
roʾeh: A person who sees or perceives.
רֹאֶה
This names the active capacity missing from the image: having eyes is not the same as being a seer.
יְדַבֵּרוּ
yedabberû
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak or utter.
“speak” in this verse is yedabberû. The root also forms דָּבָר (davar), meaning word, matter, or thing. The verse’s lifeless image has the shape of a mouth, but produces no utterance.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word or spoken matter; also a thing or matter.
דָּבָר
This word links speech with what is conveyed or named, sharpening the contrast between a formed object and a living voice.
medabber: The active form of speaking; a speaker.
מְדַבֵּר
It points to speech as an act, which the image’s mouth cannot perform.
THE PATTERN
Outward signs of a living capacity cannot supply the life that makes the capacity work.
They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.THE THREAD
They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.The same Hebrew root ראה (raʾah, see or perceive) appears in both verses. Psalm 115 describes an image that cannot see; Isaiah shows that devotion to the image can also close the maker’s own sight.
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