What Does Psalm 29:9 Mean in the King James?
The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.
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 LORD’s voice brings life through travail, strips the forest bare, and makes the whole temple speak of his weight.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s voice is at work where life strains into birth and where the forest loses its covering. Within the temple, all speak of the LORD’s weight; wild creation and the gathered assembly bear the same testimony.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The LORD’s voice belongs only within the sanctuary; this verse also hears it in birth and in the forest laid bare.
THE ROOT
יְחוֹלֵל
yeḥōlēl
GROWS FROM
חוּל
ḥûl
to whirl, writhe, or travail; by extension, to bring forth
The verb translated “maketh … to calve” carries the motion of travail: the voice brings birth through the body’s straining. The same root can describe trembling or dancing, joining the deer’s labor to creation’s movement.
ALSO GROWS
yāḥîl: trembles or writhes
יָחִיל
In the preceding verse, this form describes the wilderness trembling at the LORD’s voice, echoing the movement of labor here.
məḥōl: dance
מְחוֹל
The same root’s dance branch makes the voice’s force feel like motion through living bodies, not sound alone.
וַיֶּחֱשֹׂף
wayyeḥĕśōp̄
GROWS FROM
חָשַׂף
ḥāśap̄
to uncover, bare, or strip away
Here “discovereth” carries the image of stripping away the forest’s cover. The voice exposes what the trees conceal, so the scene moves from hiddenness into open view.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāśūp̄: bare or exposed
חָשׂוּף
This form names the state left when covering has been removed, clarifying what the voice does to the forests.
ḥāśap̄: uncover or lay bare
חָשַׂף
The verb’s direct sense sharpens the image: the forest is not merely noticed but opened by removal of its cover.
כָּבוֹד
kāvōḏ
GROWS FROM
כָּבֵד
kāvēḏ
to be heavy or weighty; to carry weight
“glory” in this verse is kāvōḏ. The temple’s speech names the LORD’s weight: what fills the scene with consequence and presence. The root also gives “honor” the sense of treating someone as weighty.
ALSO GROWS
kāvēḏ: heavy, weighty
כָּבֵד
This basic sense opens “glory” as the LORD’s weight rather than a merely decorative quality.
kibbēḏ: to honor, treat as weighty
כִּבֵּד
The verb shows how weight becomes recognition: the temple’s speech acknowledges the LORD’s significance.
THE PATTERN
Creation’s travail and testimony make the LORD’s weight visible across the wild, the heavens, and the gathered life.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.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
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.Both verses use כָּבוֹד (kāvōḏ), meaning weight or glory. Psalm 19 gives the heavens a voice; here the forests are laid bare and the temple speaks, so the same weight is voiced by sky, land, and gathered life.
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