What Does Psalm 150:6 Mean in the King James?
Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.
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 repeats the same praise-root: every breath is included in it, and the Psalm’s final words voice it.
THE MEANING
Your breath places you within the living chorus: every breathing thing is included in the call to praise the LORD. The verse ends the Psalms by widening praise to all life, then repeating the call itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that praise belongs only to words, music, or religious settings: this verse extends the call to every breathing thing.
THE ROOT
הָלַל
halal
GROWS FROM
הלל
H-L-L
praise, celebrate
The two praise forms share this root: the first extends praise across every breath, while the last sounds the summons. English keeps the phrases distinct, but the root makes them one continuing act, from all life to the Psalm’s final call.
ALSO GROWS
tehallel: praise; let it praise
תְּהַלֵּל
This is the verb attached to every breath, so the root places praise within the scope of all life.
hallelu-Yah: praise Yah
הַלְלוּ־יָהּ
The closing call repeats the same praise-root, making the verse voice the act it names.
הַנְּשָׁמָה
haneshamah
GROWS FROM
נשם
N-Š-M
breathe; pant
The word names breath as the shared mark of living creatures; the same noun appears in Job 33:4 as the breath God gives. Here praise reaches every creature through the breath that marks its life.
ALSO GROWS
nishmat: breath of; the construct form of neshamah
נִשְׁמַת
Job 33:4 uses this form in “the breath of the Almighty,” linking the life-breath here with the breath God gives.
nasham: breathe hard; pant
נָשַׁם
The verb keeps the root bodily and active: the verse speaks of living breathers, not an abstract possession.
THE PATTERN
Life received as breath widens into praise that includes every creature.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.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
The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.Job’s נִשְׁמַת (nishmat, “breath of”) and the Psalm’s הַנְּשָׁמָה (haneshamah, “the breath”) both grow from נשם (n-sh-m, “breathe”). Job names breath as given life; the Psalm opens that life into praise.
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