What Does Psalm 107:23 Mean?
Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do their work in great waters.
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
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;THE KEY
The Hebrew verb behind “do” returns in the next verse as “works,” placing human labor and the LORD’s wonders in the same deep.
THE MEANING
You may be one who goes down into a vast setting with real work to do; the verse recognizes that labor without shrinking the waters around it. Your work can happen amid what exceeds your command, and the verse names that as part of life rather than a contradiction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that work can happen only after conditions are settled: here, people are already working in the great waters.
THE ROOT
עֹשֵׂי מְלָאכָה
osei melakhah
GROWS FROM
עשׂה
to do, make, carry out
“do their work” in this verse is osei melakhah. The word translated “do” comes from עשה (asah, “do” or “make”), while מְלָאכָה (melakhah, “work”) names what they do. The next verse uses a noun from that same root for the LORD’s “works,” drawing human work and divine work together in the deep.
ALSO GROWS
asah: to do or make
עָשָׂה
This is the verb at the heart of “those doing work” in the verse.
ma'aseh: a work or deed
מַעֲשֶׂה
Its plural form appears in the next verse for the LORD’s works in the deep.
יֹרְדֵי
yordei
GROWS FROM
ירד
to descend, go down
“go down” in this verse is yordei. The verse describes movement downward into the sea, not simply travel across it. The same descent-root is commonly connected with יַרְדֵּן (Yarden, “Jordan”), whose name carries the image of a descending river.
ALSO GROWS
yarad: to descend or go down
יָרַד
This is the verb-root behind the travelers’ downward movement into the sea.
Yarden: Jordan, the river commonly associated with descending
יַרְדֵּן
The name echoes the downward movement that opens this verse.
THE PATTERN
The deep that carries human work is also a place where the LORD’s work becomes visible.
These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the sunken deep.There the ships go, and this leviathan you shape to laugh in it.And when he stopped speaking, he said to Simon, Draw out into the deep, and loosen your nets for a catch.THE THREAD
These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the sunken deep.The Hebrew form עֹשֵׂי (osei, “those doing”) comes from עשה (asah, “do” or “make”); the next verse uses מַעֲשֵׂי (ma’asei, “works”) from that same root. The passage moves from people working in the waters to seeing the LORD’s work in the deep, turning the setting of their labor into the setting of perception.
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