What Does Psalm 150:3 Mean in the King James?
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
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 trumpet’s “sound” comes from a root that also means to drive or fasten, so praise arrives as a forceful blast before the strings carry it onward.
THE MEANING
Praise here has a blast and a resonance: the shofar sounds first, then the psaltery and harp. One act of acclaim takes several audible forms, carried through distinct instruments toward the same addressee.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Praise is only silent sentiment or must have one fixed sound; this verse gives it several audible forms.
THE ROOT
תֵּקַע
teqaʿ
GROWS FROM
תקע
t-q-ʿ
To thrust or drive in, to fasten; also to sound a horn.
“sound of the trumpet” in this verse is teqaʿ. The Hebrew word for the trumpet’s blast comes from a root that can also describe driving something firmly into place. Praise is given a forceful sound that enters the open air, then the strings answer within the same act.
ALSO GROWS
taqa: To thrust, drive in, or fasten.
תָּקַע
This root sense sits beneath the trumpet blast, joining the sound of praise with an action that makes a firm impression.
tekiah: A trumpet blast or sounding.
תְּקִיעָה
This noun names the horn’s blast, the sound that opens the verse’s sequence of instruments.
הַלְלוּהוּ
halleluhu
GROWS FROM
הלל
h-l-l
To praise, acclaim, or celebrate.
“praise him” in this verse is halleluhu. The same praise command is repeated before both the trumpet and the strings. Hebrew keeps these different sounds within one act of acclaim; the instruments multiply its forms without changing its direction.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: Praise or a song of praise.
תְּהִלָּה
This related word shows praise taking shape as voiced song, as it does through the instruments here.
hallelu-yah: Praise Yah.
הַלְלוּיָהּ
It makes the same praise root audible in a familiar call directed toward God.
THE PATTERN
Praise becomes audible through distinct sounds and voices gathered into one address.
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD;Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;THE THREAD
Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.The word translated “praise” shares the Hebrew halal root repeated in Psalm 150:3, and here it appears beside dance, timbrel, and harp. The root holds the act constant while its forms of expression widen.
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