What Does Psalm 77:17 Mean in the King James?
The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad.
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
What English separates into rain, thunder, and lightning, the verse gathers into one storm in motion.
THE MEANING
Water pours, the heavens give sound, and arrows range through the sky as one display of divine force. Beside Psalm 18:14, those arrows align with lightning, so the storm’s power is audible, visible, and moving.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that the heavens are mute scenery: here the skies give sound, and their arrows move.
THE ROOT
נָתְנוּ
natnu
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
Give, set, place.
The Hebrew verb means “they gave,” where the KJV says “sent out”: the skies give sound as an act of expression. This root also carries the sense of placing, so the sound is pictured as something the heavens put into the open.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
The same root turns giving into a concrete thing received; here the skies give sound.
netinah: An act of giving or donation.
נְתִינָה
This noun keeps the action of giving visible in the line: the sound comes from what the skies give.
יִתְהַלָּכוּ
yithallāḵū
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
Walk, go, move along.
“went abroad” in this verse is yithallāḵū. The arrows are said to walk or go about, not simply to appear: the storm advances through the sky. That movement makes the rain and sound part of an unfolding event, with the arrows traveling through it.
ALSO GROWS
halikhah: Walking or movement on foot.
הֲלִיכָה
It keeps the root’s sense of movement in view as the arrows travel across the sky.
holekh: One who is going or walking.
הוֹלֵךְ
The moving form echoes the verse’s image of arrows that go about rather than remain still.
THE PATTERN
When Scripture pictures divine power in a storm, water, thunder, and lightning act together rather than as separate signs.
And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.THE THREAD
The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.Psalm 77:17 uses נָתְנוּ (natnu, “they gave”) for the skies giving a sound; Psalm 18:13 uses the same root, נָתַן (natan, “give”), for the Highest giving his voice. Its thunder and hail make the connection audible: the storm’s sound is also described as God’s voice.
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