What Does Psalm 18:9 Mean in the King James?
He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.
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 darkness that seems to conceal God is already beneath the feet of the One who comes down.
THE MEANING
The heavens bend, and God comes down into the dense gloom beneath his feet. The obscurity does not keep him distant; it is underfoot as he draws near.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Darkness or distance can place God beyond reach; this verse pictures him descending into the very obscurity that seems to conceal him.
THE ROOT
וַיֵּט
wayyet
GROWS FROM
נטה
natah
to stretch out, incline, or turn aside
English “bowed” can sound like a posture, but נטה carries the sense of stretching and inclining: the heavens are pictured as yielding downward. Beside the next verb, this bending opens into God’s descent.
ALSO GROWS
netiyyah: inclination; a turning aside
נְטִיָּה
This noun keeps the motion of the heavens in view: they incline, making way for the descent.
matteh: staff; rod
מַטֶּה
This branch carries the idea of something extended, echoing the image of the heavens stretched or bent down.
וַיֵּרַד
wayyered
GROWS FROM
ירד
yarad
to descend; to go down
“came down” in this verse is wayyered. ירד makes the nearness concrete: God does not remain above the scene but descends into it. The darkness is beneath his feet as he comes down, so obscurity accompanies the arrival without enclosing him.
ALSO GROWS
yeridah: descent; decline
יְרִידָה
This noun makes descent a movement with a direction, matching the verse’s arrival from the heavens.
yored: one who descends; descending
יוֹרֵד
This form preserves the action of coming down, showing that the verse describes movement into nearness.
THE PATTERN
Divine nearness is pictured as a descent that enters cloud and obscurity.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD.Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.THE THREAD
Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.The same two roots appear together: נטה, to incline or stretch, and ירד, to descend. Psalm 144:5 makes the movement explicit again, the heavens bend, and the LORD comes down.
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