What Does Psalm 148:10 Mean in the King James?
Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:
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 praise call includes every kind of creaturely life, from beasts and herds to the smallest thing moving along the ground and the birds on the wing.
THE MEANING
The creatures around you belong within the praise of God, whether they graze, crawl, or fly. Their place in the verse does not depend on speaking like a human or serving a human purpose.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that praise belongs only to speaking humans; the verse includes creatures whose praise is not human speech.
THE ROOT
חַיָּה
chayyah
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥ-y-h
To live, be alive
The word translated “beasts” grows from the root for life, carrying the sense of a living creature beneath its specific animal category. Beside “all cattle,” it gathers wild and domesticated animal life into the same praise call.
ALSO GROWS
chay: Living, alive
חַי
This related form makes the root’s life-language audible inside the word for beasts.
chayyim: Life
חַיִּים
The same root names life itself, widening the verse’s list beyond animal labels to the livingness they share.
רֶמֶשׂ
remes
GROWS FROM
רמשׂ
r-m-ś
To move or creep
“Creeping things” in this verse is remes. The Hebrew word is tied to movement, so the verse includes life as it moves close to the ground. The list reaches creatures that are easily overlooked alongside beasts, herds, and winged birds.
ALSO GROWS
rāmaś: To move, creep
רָמַשׂ
The verb behind the noun shows that the category is marked by the creature’s movement.
rōmēś: Moving or creeping
רֹמֵשׂ
This participial form pictures a creature in motion, echoing the verse’s inclusion of life at ground level.
THE PATTERN
The call to praise extends across the living world, including creatures beyond human speech.
Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.THE THREAD
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.Genesis uses the same Hebrew word for “creeping thing,” רֶמֶשׂ (remes), meaning a moving or creeping creature. The life brought forth from the earth appears here within the call to praise.
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