What Does Psalm 66:5 Mean in the King James?

Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.

Psalm 66:5 · 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

The verse makes awe arise from seeing what God does among people.

THE MEANING

You are invited to look at God’s deeds among human beings. What you see can awaken awe; God’s action is presented as something encountered, not merely imagined.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the idea that God is only a distant concept: the verse points to deeds among people that can be seen.

THE ROOT

נוֹרָא

nora

GROWS FROM

ירא

y-r-ʾ

To fear, revere, or stand in awe; when God is the one feared, the word carries awe.

The word translated “terrible” comes from the same root that names awe and reverent fear. That root lets the verse hold both the unsettling force of God’s deeds and the awe they awaken.

ALSO GROWS

yir'ah: Awe, reverent fear.

יִרְאָה

This noun shares the root and shows that the response to God’s deeds is not simple alarm but awe.

yare: To fear or stand in awe.

יָרֵא

This verb carries the response named by nora: encountering God’s action can bring a person into awe.

THE PATTERN

Visible acts of God awaken awe in those who encounter them.

Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.

Psalm 46:8 · KJVThe invitation to behold God’s works puts the same direct encounter at the center, including deeds that unsettle.

He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.

Deuteronomy 10:21 · KJVThe verse joins deeds that are seen with the awe they command.

And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.

Luke 5:26 · KJVHere too, seeing what God does among people brings amazement and fear.

THE THREAD

And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.

Psalm 145:6 · KJV

“Terrible” here and “terrible” in Psalm 66:5 both translate forms from ⁨ירא⁩ (y-r-ʾ, yare), the root of awe and reverent fear. The shared root links seeing God’s acts with the awe that makes them worth declaring.

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