What Does Psalm 68:15 Mean in the King James?
The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill as the hill of Bashan.
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 gives God’s hill the scale of Bashan’s peaks, while the next verse shows that God’s choice, not height alone, marks his dwelling.
THE MEANING
God’s hill stands beside Bashan’s imposing heights, so the image gives divine presence a mountain’s scale. The next verse turns the reader’s attention from towering peaks to the place the LORD chooses to inhabit.
THE ROOT
גַּבְנֻנִּים
gabbunim
GROWS FROM
גבן
g-b-n
To be humped, arched, or convex.
“high hill” in this verse is gabbunim. The word translated “high” evokes a raised, peaked contour, not height alone. The same word returns in the next verse, where Bashan’s imposing ridges meet the question of which hill God chooses as his dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
gibben: Hump-backed or arched in form.
גִּבֵּן
This related form shows that the root describes a contour that rises or curves outward, which gives the mountain image more shape than the English word “high” conveys.
gabbun: Humped or peaked.
גַּבְנוּן
This related form carries the same raised contour that the verse applies to the mountain ridges.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses mountain height to show the scale of divine presence, while God’s choice identifies the dwelling.
Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the LORD will dwell in it for ever.And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.THE THREAD
Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the LORD will dwell in it for ever.The same Hebrew word translated “high hills” recurs as the psalm turns from Bashan’s peaks to the hill the LORD chooses. The repeated root shifts the focus from a mountain’s contour to where God chooses to dwell.
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