What Does Psalm 104:10 Mean?
He sends the springs into the valleys, and they walk between the hills.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “spring” shares its root with “eye,” picturing each spring as an opening through which the land releases water.
THE MEANING
The springs are sent into the valleys and keep moving among the hills. The low places are not outside the flow of life; they are among the places it reaches and travels through.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that valleys are only places water drains away: here they are places where springs are sent.
THE ROOT
מַעְיָנִים
maʿyānîm
GROWS FROM
עין
ʿayin
Eye; the related word for a spring names an opening or source from which water emerges.
“springs” in this verse is maʿyānîm. The word for a spring grows from the same root as the word for an eye. That link lets you see the spring as an opening in the landscape, where water emerges into the valley.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: The organ of sight; also the root word associated with a spring or source.
עַיִן
The shared word-shape ties the spring to an opening: the spring is where the water comes into view.
maʿyan: A source from which water flows.
מַעְיָן
This is the singular form of the word in the verse, making each spring an opening through which water enters the land.
הַמְשַׁלֵּחַ
hamshalleaḥ
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
To send out, release, or let go.
“sends” in this verse is hamshalleaḥ. The springs are not described as appearing by chance: they are sent forth. The same root carries the sense of release, so the verse holds both the sending of water and its movement outward.
ALSO GROWS
shalach: To send forth or let go.
שָׁלַח
This is the root behind “sendeth”: the springs are released into the valleys to move among the hills.
Shiloach: The name associated with the pool of Siloam, interpreted as “Sent.”
שִׁלֹחַ
The name preserves this sending image in a water place; in John 9:7, the man sent to the pool returns seeing.
THE PATTERN
Life-giving water reaches the low places and carries life wherever it flows.
And he becomes like a tree planted by the channels of the waters, that gives its fruit in its season; its leaf does not wither; whatever he does, he breaks through.And every living soul that swarms, wherever the rivers come, shall live. And there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come there. They shall be healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes.The one who leans his weight into me, as the writing has said, rivers of living waters will flow from his belly.THE THREAD
He sends his utterance upon the earth; his word runs very swiftly.Psalm 104 uses shalach, “send forth,” for the springs sent into the valleys; here the same root sends a commandment across the earth, and the word runs swiftly. The shared root links the water’s movement with what is sent out and set in motion.
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