What Does Psalm 105:34 Mean?
He said, and locusts came, and the devourer, without number.
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 spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number,THE KEY
The Hebrew name for the locust is tied to multiplication, so the verse describes increase swelling beyond count.
THE MEANING
Here speech becomes arrival: what is spoken is followed by a swarm multiplying beyond counting. The abundance carries a destructive edge, as locusts and caterpillars come in a number no one can measure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that speech is only description; here speaking stands immediately before the swarm’s arrival.
THE ROOT
אַרְבֶּה
arbeh
GROWS FROM
רבה
Be many, multiply, increase
“locusts” in this verse is arbeh. The word for locust is linked to becoming many. Beside “without number,” that root makes the swarm’s multiplication part of the verse’s force.
ALSO GROWS
rabah: Increase, become many
רָבָה
The verb names the multiplication carried in the locust’s name.
harbeh: Much, many
הַרְבֵּה
This related form makes abundance audible in the same root family.
מִסְפָּר
mispar
GROWS FROM
ספר
Count, recount, tell
“Without number” comes from the language of counting and recounting. The swarm exceeds a count and an account: it cannot be contained in a tally.
ALSO GROWS
safar: Count, recount, tell
סָפַר
The verb shows the act of measuring or recounting that the swarm escapes.
sefer: Book, written record
סֵפֶר
The same root reaches from counting toward keeping an account; this swarm outruns both.
וַיֹּאמֶר
vayyomer
GROWS FROM
אמר
Say, speak
“said” in this verse is vayyomer. The Hebrew moves directly from וַיֹּאמֶר (vayyomer, “he spoke”) to וַיָּבֹא (vayyavo, “it came”). Speech stands at the threshold of the swarm’s arrival.
ALSO GROWS
amar: Say, speak
אָמַר
This is the root verb in the verse’s opening act of speech.
imrah: Utterance, saying
אִמְרָה
This related noun keeps the focus on spoken words as the verse turns toward what arrives.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word can be followed by a tangible event that exceeds ordinary measure.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.For he says, and it comes to be; he commands, and it stands.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
For he says, and it comes to be; he commands, and it stands.Both verses use the Hebrew root אָמַר (amar, “to speak”). Psalm 33:9 makes explicit the movement Psalm 105:34 shows: speech, then what comes to pass.
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