What Does Psalm 18:8 Mean in the King James?

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

Psalm 18:8 · KJV

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 fire does not merely burn: its verb is “eat,” turning flame into a mouth that consumes.

THE MEANING

Divine force takes bodily form here: smoke rises from his nostrils, fire comes from his mouth, and coals kindle in its path. The verse holds this encounter as heat and spreading flame, not as an abstraction.

THE ROOT

תֹּאכֵל

toʾkhel

GROWS FROM

אכל

Eat, consume (ʾākhal).

The form translated “devoured” is built from the ordinary verb ⁨אָכַל⁩ (ʾākhal, “eat”). Hebrew therefore makes the fire an eater, holding burning and eating together; the coals catching show this consuming force spreading through the scene.

ALSO GROWS

ʾōkhel: Food; something eaten

אֹכֶל

The same root names what is eaten; here the fire takes the eater’s place.

maʾakhal: Food; something for eating

מַאֲכָל

This branch shares the same ⁨א־כ־ל⁩ consonants and makes the verse’s image of fire as an eater especially concrete.

THE PATTERN

When divine presence appears as fire, the image is of a force that consumes what it reaches.

And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

Exodus 19:18 · KJVThe verse pictures the LORD’s descent in fire, with smoke rising and the mountain quaking.

A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.

Psalm 97:3 · KJVFire goes before him and burns around him, making divine arrival visible as heat and destruction.

For our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:29 · KJVThis names directly the consuming-fire image that Psalm 18:8 renders through smoke, flame, and kindled coals.

THE THREAD

For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 4:24 · KJV

Deuteronomy calls the LORD “a consuming fire”; its Hebrew phrase ⁨אֵשׁ אֹכְלָה⁩ (ʾēsh ʾokhlāh, “an eating fire”) uses ⁨אָכַל⁩ (ʾākhal, “eat”), the same root as ⁨תֹּאכֵל⁩ (toʾkhel, “it eats”) in this psalm. The shared root pictures fire as an eater in both verses.

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