What Does Psalm 147:15 Mean in the King James?
He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.
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
God’s spoken word is sent into the earth already in motion.
THE MEANING
God’s utterance reaches the earth and moves swiftly. The verse presents the word as something sent into your world, not distant from it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that God’s word is only a distant command with no movement toward the earth.
THE ROOT
הַשֹּׁלֵחַ
hasholeach the one
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
Send out, release, let go.
Shalach is the root behind “sendeth forth”: the word is released toward the earth. The next clause pictures it already running, carrying the motion of its sending forward.
ALSO GROWS
shaluaḥ: sent, dispatched
שָׁלוּחַ
The same root makes the word’s movement plain: what reaches the earth has been sent.
shaliaḥ: messenger, one sent
שָׁלִיחַ
A messenger carries what is sent; here the word itself is sent into the earth.
אִמְרָתוֹ
imrato his utterance
GROWS FROM
אמר
Say, speak, utter.
The Hebrew beneath “commandment” is imrato, his utterance, from amar, “to say.” The verse holds speech and dispatch together: what is sent is something spoken.
ALSO GROWS
amar: to say, speak
אָמַר
This verbal root shows the commandment as spoken utterance.
imrah: utterance, saying
אִמְרָה
The noun echoes the verse’s wording for what God sends forth.
דְּבָרוֹ
devaro his word
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak, declare; a spoken word or matter.
Davar can mean both “word” and “matter,” while dibber means “speak” or “declare.” The word that runs is speech in motion, reaching into the world as an active reality.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
The word’s movement is also movement into the matter of the earth.
dibber: spoke, declared
דִּבֵּר
The spoken word in the first clause becomes the running word in the second.
THE PATTERN
What God speaks is sent into the world, where it reaches and performs its work.
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.THE THREAD
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.This verse repeats the same roots: shalach (שׁלח, send) and davar (דבר, word). Here the sent word heals and delivers, revealing its movement as release into wholeness.
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