What Does Psalm 147:5 Mean in the King James?
Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
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 says there is no number to God’s discernment, joining understanding to a measure no counting can reach.
THE MEANING
Great power and unbounded discernment belong together here. What exceeds your count does not exceed the reach of God’s understanding, which remains present where your own grasp ends.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what you cannot understand is beyond all understanding.
THE ROOT
תְּבוּנָה
tevunah
GROWS FROM
ב־י־ן
b-y-n
To discern or perceive distinctions, to see between things.
The word translated “understanding” grows from a root that also means “between.” It points to discernment that sees distinctions, not just a store of information; here, no number marks its limit.
ALSO GROWS
bin: To understand or discern.
בִּין
This verb shows that understanding is an act of perception, the root’s central movement.
bein: Between.
בֵּין
The shared root connects understanding with perceiving what lies between or distinguishes one thing from another.
binah: Understanding or discernment.
בִּינָה
This related noun keeps the same sense of insight that distinguishes and comprehends.
מִסְפָּר
mispar
GROWS FROM
ס־פ־ר
s-p-r
To count or recount.
“infinite” in this verse is mispar. The Hebrew phrase is literally “there is no number” to his understanding. The language sets counting beside discernment: no tally can mark where this understanding ends.
ALSO GROWS
safar: To count or recount.
סָפַר
The verb gives the direct sense behind the word for number.
sefer: A book or written record.
סֵפֶר
A record gathers what can be counted or recounted, sharpening the contrast with understanding that has no number.
sippur: An account or telling.
סִפּוּר
Like counting, an account can enumerate what is known, but cannot set a boundary around this discernment.
THE PATTERN
God’s knowing exceeds every human measure and remains unexhausted by counting or searching.
Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!THE THREAD
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.Isaiah repeats the same Hebrew word for understanding, tevunah, and says there is no searching of it. Together, the verses place great power beside discernment that no search or count can exhaust.
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