What Does Psalm 135:5 Mean in the King James?
For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.
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 places every godlike power below the LORD’s greatness, so presence does not mean equality.
THE MEANING
You can recognize the LORD’s greatness while rival powers remain present; none shares the same height. That recognition gives the world a center that does not shift with the number or force of competing powers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that whatever appears powerful must therefore be ultimate.
THE ROOT
גָּדוֹל
gādōl
GROWS FROM
גדל
To grow or become great.
The Hebrew word for “great” carries the sense of something grown large. Here, the LORD’s greatness sets the scale by which every rival power is seen as lesser.
ALSO GROWS
gādal: To grow or become great.
גָּדַל
The shared root shows that greatness is expressed as magnitude, not merely a title.
migdāl: Tower.
מִגְדָּל
A tower rises above its surroundings, echoing the verse’s image of the LORD above every rival.
יָדַעְתִּי
yādaʿtî
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“I know” in this verse is yādaʿtî. The Hebrew yada can describe knowing through encounter, so this is personal recognition rather than bare information. The verse presents the LORD’s greatness as something recognized, not something made true by the speaker’s judgment.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: To know or perceive.
יָדַע
This is the verb’s base form and keeps the verse’s first-person knowing connected to recognition.
daʿat: Knowledge.
דַּעַת
This related noun shows the same root’s movement from knowing to what is known.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s greatness is recognized by placing every rival power beneath God’s unmatched rule.
Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods.One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.THE THREAD
Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.Both verses use yada, יָדַע, “to know or perceive,” in the speaker’s declaration of recognition. Exodus makes the contrast concrete: even powers that act proudly remain beneath the LORD.
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