What Does Psalm 89:25 Mean in the King James?
I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.
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 promise places the hand of rule within both the sea and the rivers, so its reach includes the vast and the constantly moving.
THE MEANING
The verse gives you an image of divine rule as a hand placed in the sea and in the rivers. The waters do not mark the edge of that reach; even what feels vast and difficult to command is pictured within it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what feels overwhelming or unfamiliar lies beyond divine reach.
THE ROOT
וְשַׂמְתִּי
ve-samti
GROWS FROM
שׂים
to put, place, or set
The Hebrew verb makes the image concrete: a hand is deliberately placed in the waters. The same root appears in שִׂים לֵב (sim lev, set the heart or attend), linking placement with focused presence; here, the hand is present in both sea and river.
ALSO GROWS
sam: he places or sets
שָׂם
This form carries the same act of placing pictured in the verse, where the hand is set among the waters.
sim lev: set the heart; attend
שִׂים לֵב
This idiom shows the root can describe directed presence, echoing the deliberate placement of the hand across the waters.
THE PATTERN
Divine rule is pictured as a reach that crosses waters and boundaries.
He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!THE THREAD
He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.This verse repeats the same Hebrew sea and river words, ים (yam, sea) and נהר (nahar, river), and names the reach as dominion. It makes the image of a hand set in the waters legible as authority extending across them.
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