What Does Psalm 147:8 Mean in the King James?
Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
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 same hand that covers the sky is setting rain in place so life can rise even on the mountains.
THE MEANING
The sky can be veiled while provision is already being prepared for the earth. Rain reaches the ground, and grass rises on the mountains. The verse holds covering, readiness, and visible growth within one ongoing work.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a covered sky means provision has been withdrawn: what appears obscured can be part of what is being prepared for growth.
THE ROOT
הַמֵּכִין
hamēkhîn
GROWS FROM
כון
To be firm or established; in a causative form, to set in place or prepare.
The word translated “prepareth” is a causative form of כון: God is setting rain in readiness for the earth. This same root describes what is made firm and established, so provision appears as an ordered condition that enables growth.
ALSO GROWS
hēkhîn: Prepared, made ready, or set in place.
הֵכִין
This verbal form makes clear that preparation is an act of arranging something so it is ready to serve.
mākhôn: A fixed place, foundation, or established dwelling.
מָכוֹן
A place made firm shares the root of the rain made ready here: both describe provision set in place.
הַמַּצְמִיחַ
hammaṣmîaḥ
GROWS FROM
צמח
To sprout, shoot forth, or grow.
“maketh grass to grow” in this verse is hammaṣmîaḥ. The Hebrew verb is causative: it pictures bringing forth a sprout. The same root names the shoot itself, so the verse moves from rain prepared for the earth to life visibly pushing up from it.
ALSO GROWS
ṣāmaḥ: To sprout or grow.
צָמַח
This verb names the act of emerging that the grass undergoes.
ṣemaḥ: A sprout, shoot, or new growth.
צֶמַח
The noun carries the same seed as the growing grass: growth is life appearing as a shoot.
THE PATTERN
Life rises where provision reaches the ground beyond human control.
He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.THE THREAD
For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.The Hebrew for “established” in Psalm 24:2 comes from כון, the same root as “prepareth” here. One verse shows rain being set in readiness for the earth; the other shows the earth itself established over the waters.
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