What Does Psalm 78:24 Mean in the King James?
And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
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
Heaven’s grain is pictured arriving as rain: nourishment descends as a gift, ready to be eaten.
THE MEANING
Nourishment can reach you as a gift before you understand it; it arrives to be received, eaten, and made part of life. The verse brings heaven’s generosity close to ordinary hunger, joining what is given with what sustains you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that nourishment exists only when you produce it yourself: here, what sustains is given from beyond your own making.
THE ROOT
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, or place.
English can make “given” sound like a simple handoff, while this root also carries the sense of setting or placing. The grain is given as provision positioned to meet hunger, ready to be received and eaten.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
The gift-word shares the seed of “given,” making the grain of heaven provision received rather than made.
Nathan: “He gave,” used as a name.
נָתָן
The name holds giving as a nature: the verse presents the grain as what is given.
וַיַּמְטֵר
wayyamṭēr
GROWS FROM
מטר
Rain; cause rain to fall.
“rained down” in this verse is wayyamṭēr. The Hebrew uses the rain-root in a causative verb: the manna is made to descend in the manner of rain. That image joins food to the sky’s downward movement of provision.
ALSO GROWS
matar: Rain.
מָטָר
The noun names the same phenomenon used as the verse’s picture of how the food arrives.
himṭir: Cause to rain.
הִמְטִיר
This causative form shares the root and makes the descent an act: the manna is rained down.
THE PATTERN
Heaven’s provision is given to be received and become nourishment.
Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.THE THREAD
Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.The Hebrew verb for “rained” here and “I will rain” there share מטר (matar, rain). Exodus makes the image explicit: manna is bread sent down as rain, so Psalm 78’s grain of heaven is provision arriving by descent.
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