What Does Psalm 50:11 Mean in the King James?

I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

Psalm 50:11 · 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

Here, God’s claim over the wild is voiced through knowing: what belongs to God is not outside God’s attention.

THE MEANING

The birds beyond your sight and the beasts beyond your reach are known and belong to God now. What is wild or uncounted by you is not therefore unknown to God.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that a life beyond human reach is beyond God’s care.

THE ROOT

יָדַעְתִּי

yādaʿtî

GROWS FROM

י־ד־ע

y-d-ʿ

To know, recognize, or perceive.

“know” in this verse is yādaʿtî. The root can name recognition as well as knowledge; here, God’s knowing encompasses even what is untamed and out of human reach. The verse holds knowing and belonging together: the wild creatures are known, and they are God’s.

ALSO GROWS

yādaʿ: To know, recognize, or perceive.

יָדַע

This is the verb behind I know, presenting God’s knowledge as recognition that reaches every creature named here.

daʿat: Knowledge or perception.

דַּעַת

This noun shares the root of the verb: Hebrew links the act of knowing with knowledge itself, rather than reducing the verse to a distant inventory.

THE PATTERN

Creatures beyond human keeping remain within God’s knowing and provision.

These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.

Psalm 104:27 · KJVThe creatures who depend on God for food are also within God’s knowing and care.

Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

Job 38:41 · KJVEven the raven and its young, beyond human provision, are seen in their need.

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

Matthew 10:29 · KJVThe sparrow’s smallness and low value to people do not place it beyond the Father’s notice.

THE THREAD

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.

Psalm 139:1 · KJV

Psalm 139 uses the same Hebrew root, ⁨ידע⁩ (y-d-ʿ), for God knowing the reader. The knowing that reaches every wild creature also reaches you personally.

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