What Does Psalm 104:7 Mean?
At your rebuke they flee; at the thunder of your voice they hurry away.
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
At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.THE KEY
The waters’ vastness does not make them permanent; at God’s voice, they retreat.
THE MEANING
What seems to fill every space does not have the final word: God’s rebuke reaches the waters, and they withdraw. The verse speaks now wherever overwhelm feels limitless: even what covers the horizon can be answered by a voice with authority.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that whatever overwhelms the whole horizon must be immovable is undone here: even the waters withdraw at the voice that rebukes them.
THE ROOT
יֵחָפֵזוּן
yēḥāpēzûn
GROWS FROM
חפז
To hurry in alarm, flee in haste.
“hurry away” in this verse is yēḥāpēzûn. “Hasted away” can sound like a neutral change of speed, but חפז carries urgency under alarm: the waters are driven into retreat. The same root’s noun for haste describes an urgent departure, giving this movement an exodus-shaped echo.
ALSO GROWS
chaphaz: To hurry or be alarmed.
חָפַז
The verb’s urgency makes the waters’ retreat feel like a response to a force they cannot withstand.
chippazon: Haste; urgent departure.
חִפָּזוֹן
This noun appears in Exodus 12:11 for the haste of departure from Egypt, linking the waters’ retreat with movement out of constriction.
THE PATTERN
When God’s word sets a boundary, what overwhelms the scene withdraws or settles.
And God said, "Let the waters beneath the heavens be pooled into one place, and let the dry land be seen." And it was so.And said, This far shall you come, but no further, and here shall your swelling waves be held?And waking, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Be silent. Be muzzled. And the wind wore itself out, and a great calm came.THE THREAD
And in this way you will eat it, with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand; you will eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover.The root חפז behind “hasted away” also appears as חִפָּזוֹן, “haste,” in Exodus 12:11. One root links the waters’ urgent retreat with departure out of constriction, giving this verse an exodus-shaped depth.
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