What Does Psalm 46:4 Mean in the King James?
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
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
One river reaches the city through many channels, and its flow carries gladness into the dwelling of God.
THE MEANING
God’s dwelling place is made glad by channels carrying the life of one river. The image speaks now of a living supply reaching the many places gathered around the divine presence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse loosens the belief that gladness must wait until the world is calm: in the psalm’s own frame, the river is already making the city glad while the earth shakes.
THE ROOT
פְּלָגָיו
pelagav its channels
GROWS FROM
פָּלַג
p-l-g
To divide or split into channels.
The Hebrew pictures one river and then names the channels belonging to it. English can make “streams” sound like separate waters; the root holds together a single source branching through the city.
ALSO GROWS
peleg: A stream or channel.
פֶּלֶג
This is the noun behind the verse’s “streams”: the river’s flow reaches the city through its channels.
palag: To divide or separate.
פָּלַג
The root’s sense of dividing clarifies how one river can spread into multiple channels without becoming many sources.
מִשְׁכְּנֵי
mishkenei dwellings of
GROWS FROM
שָׁכַן
sh-k-n
To dwell, settle, or abide.
“tabernacles” in this verse is mishkenei dwellings of. The word for the Most High’s dwelling grows from the verb “to dwell.” The verse joins the city’s gladness to a presence that inhabits it: the holy place is a place of abiding.
ALSO GROWS
mishkan: A dwelling place or tabernacle.
מִשְׁכָּן
It shares the root with “tabernacles,” making the idea of God’s dwelling explicit in the verse’s image.
shakhen: A neighbor, one who dwells nearby.
שָׁכֵן
This branch carries dwelling into nearness: the root’s family connects inhabiting a place with being present beside others.
THE PATTERN
God’s living supply flows outward, sustaining and renewing what receives it.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.THE THREAD
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.Psalm 1:3 uses the same root, פֶּלֶג (peleg, channel), for the waters beside the rooted tree. Here those channels gladden the city; together, the verses show one source reaching both a rooted life and a shared dwelling.
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