What Does Psalm 144:5 Mean in the King James?
Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.
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 Hebrew root behind “touch” also carries the sense of affliction, so the mountain smokes at the contact of a presence with real force.
THE MEANING
The heavens bend, the LORD comes down, and the mountains smoke under his touch. Divine nearness reaches what seems fixed, and its response becomes visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God is too far above to enter the places that feel immovable.
THE ROOT
גַּע
gaʿ
GROWS FROM
נגע
To reach, touch, or strike.
The root נגע holds touch, reach, and strike in one family. The mountain’s smoke makes this contact consequential: the LORD’s arrival changes what it reaches.
ALSO GROWS
nāgaʿ: Touch, reach, strike.
נָגַע
גַּע is the direct command form of this verb, placing the LORD in contact with the mountains.
negaʿ: Affliction, blow, plague.
נֶגַע
This noun from the same consonants carries contact into affliction, giving the mountain’s smoke the force of a visible impact.
הַט
haṭ
GROWS FROM
נטה
To stretch out, extend, incline, or bend.
“Bow” in this verse is haṭ. The root holds stretching out and inclining together. The heavens are bent toward the ground, folding the distance between divine height and the world below.
ALSO GROWS
neṭiyyāh: Inclination, turning aside.
נְטִיָּה
This noun preserves the root’s leaning motion and illuminates the heavens being inclined downward.
maṭṭeh: Staff, rod; tribe.
מַטֶּה
This word is traditionally derived from the same root: the sense of extending or bending takes shape as a staff, or as a branch of a people.
THE PATTERN
When God draws near, creation registers that presence through physical change.
And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.THE THREAD
He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.This verse repeats the same paired movement: וַיֵּט (from נטה, incline) and וַיֵּרַד (from ירד, descend). The matching roots make the bending heavens and the LORD’s descent one continuous action.
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