What Does Psalm 99:5 Mean in the King James?
Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.
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 draws one vertical line: the LORD is raised high, while the worshipper bows low at the place of his feet.
THE MEANING
The LORD our God is exalted, and the worshipper’s body bows at the place of his feet. His set-apartness gives the posture its focus: the one bowed before is the LORD, distinct in being.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that worship is only an inward feeling: the verse shows it as a bodily lowering at the LORD’s footstool.
THE ROOT
וְהִשְׁתַּחֲווּ
ve-hishtachavu
GROWS FROM
שחה
shachah
To bow down or prostrate oneself.
The verb translated “worship” pictures a body lowering itself. Its related forms can be rendered “bow down” or “prostrate,” so the footstool gives this worship a visible posture and a place.
ALSO GROWS
hishtachavah: To bow down or prostrate oneself.
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
This related verb form makes explicit the bodily movement contained in “worship.”
mishtachaveh: One who bows down.
מִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה
The same root can name the person taking the posture described in the verse.
רוֹמְמוּ
romemu
GROWS FROM
רום
rum
To rise or be high.
The command to exalt comes from a root of rising or being high, while the next command uses a verb for bowing low. The verse places these two directions together as a picture of reverence.
ALSO GROWS
ram: High or exalted.
רָם
This adjective echoes the height expressed by the command to exalt the LORD.
marom: Height or a high place.
מָרוֹם
This noun extends the root’s image of elevation, set beside the worshipper’s lowered posture.
קָדוֹשׁ
qadosh
GROWS FROM
קדש
qadash
To set apart, consecrate, or make distinct.
“holy” in this verse is qadosh. “Set apart” is also the seed of words for a sanctuary and for consecrating something. The verse links the LORD’s set-apart nature with the worship enacted at his footstool.
ALSO GROWS
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
This related word links holiness with a place set apart for the presence of God.
qiddesh: To consecrate or set apart.
קִדֵּשׁ
This verb shows the root in action: marking something as distinct.
THE PATTERN
Recognition of the LORD’s set-apart presence takes visible form in bowing.
And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,THE THREAD
And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.The same Hebrew verb for bowing that appears in this psalm appears when Moses bows his head to earth and worships. Both verses make worship visible in the body’s lowering; Psalm 99 places that posture at the LORD’s footstool.
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