What Does Psalm 115:7 Mean in the King James?

They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.

Psalm 115:7 · 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 throat’s inability to utter exposes the difference between the shape of life and the power to act.

THE MEANING

These bodies have the outline of action without its power: the hands cannot handle, the feet cannot walk, and the throat cannot utter. The verse exposes how a form can resemble life while remaining unable to answer or move. Its silence is incapacity.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A form that looks human or sacred must be alive and able to answer.

THE ROOT

יֶהְגּוּ

yehgu

GROWS FROM

הגה

hagah

Murmur, utter, or muse.

“speak” in this verse is yehgu. The verb holds both vocal utterance and inward musing. The throat here cannot produce even a murmur; elsewhere, the same root describes thought voiced over the LORD’s instruction.

ALSO GROWS

yehgeh: Meditates or murmurs.

יֶהְגֶּה

In Psalm 1:2, this form describes meditation on the LORD’s instruction, showing that hagah can name a living movement of thought and voice.

higgayon: Musing or meditation.

הִגָּיוֹן

Psalm 19:14 uses this noun for the heart’s meditation, extending the root from spoken sound to inward reflection.

THE PATTERN

A made image can bear the form of living faculties without their power, while the living God gives life rather than receiving it from human hands.

They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;

Psalm 135:16 · KJVThe same pattern places visible organs beside the absence of their living functions.

They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

Jeremiah 10:5 · KJVThe image stands upright but cannot speak or move under its own power.

Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

Acts 17:25 · KJVThe living God gives life and breath instead of depending on human hands to sustain him.

THE THREAD

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Psalm 1:2 · KJV

The verb translated “speak” here comes from hagah, which can mean a low utterance or musing. The same root describes meditation on the LORD’s instruction, setting the idol’s silent throat against a living movement of thought and voice.

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