What Does Psalm 150:4 Mean in the King James?
Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
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
Praise is not contained in a sentence here: the verse gives it feet, rhythm, strings, and pipes.
THE MEANING
Praise takes shape through your body and through the sounds you make. The verse sets dance beside the timbrel, then strings beside the pipe, giving praise a range of physical forms.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that praise is only an inward thought or spoken formula dissolves here; this verse gives it movement and music.
THE ROOT
הַלְלוּהוּ
hallelu-hu
GROWS FROM
הלל
H-L-L
Praise, celebrate.
English “praise” can sound like a category of speech, but this root also forms הַלְלוּיָהּ (hallelu-Yah), “praise Yah.” Here praise is expressed through dance and instruments: it is celebration made audible and embodied.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: Praise; a song of praise.
תְּהִלָּה
The same root gives praise a sung form, echoing this verse’s instruments.
hallelu-Yah: Praise Yah.
הַלְלוּיָהּ
This familiar call shares the verse’s root and makes praise an audible invocation.
THE PATTERN
Praise takes form through the whole person, becoming movement, song, and music.
Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.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 Hebrew word for “praise” in both verses comes from הלל (halal), the root of praise and celebration. Psalm 149:3 makes the same pairing explicit: dance, timbrel, and harp all carry that praise.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us