What Does Psalm 33:8 Mean in the King James?
Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
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
Two different Hebrew fear-words make awe the shared response of every land and every inhabitant.
THE MEANING
The LORD is the one before whom the entire inhabited world is summoned to awe. You are included in the verse’s address: its scope reaches from all the earth to everyone who lives in it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Awe is not reserved for a select people or a private religious few; the verse twice declares its scope universal.
THE ROOT
יִירְאוּ
yirʾû
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear or revere; with the LORD as the one feared, to stand in awe.
This root holds fear and reverence together; with the LORD as its object, it speaks as awe. English “fear” can sound like panic alone, while the Hebrew leaves room for reverence.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾāh: Fear, reverence, awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun form makes clear that the verse’s response can be reverent awe, not only alarm.
môrāʾ: Dread, reverence.
מוֹרָא
This related form shows the root’s range from dread to reverence, deepening the force of fearing the LORD.
יָגוּרוּ
yāgūrū
GROWS FROM
גור
To dread, fear, or be in awe.
“stand in awe” in this verse is yāgūrū. The second clause uses a different Hebrew verb from the first: it answers yareʾ with another word for fear or dread. Together, the two lines extend the summons across all the earth and everyone who inhabits it.
ALSO GROWS
yāgūr: He fears or dreads.
יָגוּר
This singular form of the verb shows that the awe named in the verse is a personal response as well as a universal one.
māgōr: Dread, terror.
מָגוֹר
This related noun shows the root’s force at its most intense, giving the second line a note of deep seriousness.
THE PATTERN
Awe before the LORD is presented as the fitting response of the whole inhabited world.
O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.THE THREAD
O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.The Hebrew word translated “fear” comes from the same root, ירא (yareʾ), in both verses. Psalm 33:8 names the response as the earth’s shared awe; Psalm 34:9 connects that same awe with “no want.”
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