What Does Psalm 78:48 Mean in the King James?
He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
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 verb translated “gave up” also means “shut” or “hand over,” so the verse depicts the herds being delivered into the hail’s reach.
THE MEANING
Here, the verse makes judgment concrete: cattle meet hail, and flocks meet burning bolts. The damage reaches living animals and the livelihood held in them; the violence remains visible.
THE ROOT
וַיַּסְגֵּר
wayyasgēr
GROWS FROM
סגר
s-g-r
To shut or close; in the causative form, to shut in or hand over.
“gave up” in this verse is wayyasgēr. The Hebrew verb carries both closure and surrender into another’s power. Here the herds are handed into the hail’s reach, while the same root can describe a boundary that encloses and protects.
ALSO GROWS
sāgar: Shut, close
סָגַר
In Genesis 7:16, the LORD “shut him in,” using closure to enclose Noah.
hisgīr: Hand over, deliver up
הִסְגִּיר
Amos 1:6 uses this form for delivering captives to Edom, showing the root’s sense of surrendering someone into another’s power.
לָרְשָׁפִים
lāreshāfīm
GROWS FROM
רשף
r-sh-p
To burn or blaze; a flame or fiery bolt.
The Hebrew image carries the heat of flame and the force of a fiery bolt. The root makes the burning itself visible inside the KJV’s “hot thunderbolts.”
ALSO GROWS
reshef: Flame, burning heat
רֶשֶׁף
Deuteronomy 32:24 uses this word for burning heat, giving the verse’s bolts a distinctly fiery register.
benei reshef: Sons of flame; sparks
בְּנֵי רֶשֶׁף
Job 5:7 pictures these “sons of flame” flying upward, showing the same word-family in the image of sparks.
מִקְנֵיהֶם
miqnehem
GROWS FROM
קנה
q-n-h
To acquire, buy, or possess.
“flocks” in this verse is miqnehem. The Hebrew noun מִקְנֶה (miqneh) means livestock, yet it grows from a root of acquiring and possessing. The verse therefore names both living creatures and the material wealth bound up with them.
ALSO GROWS
qānāh: Acquire, buy
קָנָה
Genesis 47:20 uses this verb when Joseph buys Egypt’s land, making the economic dimension of the livestock audible.
qōneh: Possessor, owner
קֹנֵה
Genesis 14:19 calls God “possessor of heaven and earth,” showing how this root extends from acquired goods to possession on a cosmic scale.
THE PATTERN
Destruction through the created world reaches the material web of life: animals, fields, trees, and food.
And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.THE THREAD
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.“Shut him in” comes from the same root, סגר (s-g-r), as “gave up” here. The root holds both enclosure and handover: in Genesis it closes around Noah, while here the herds are handed over to the destructive forces.
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