What Does Psalm 109:27 Mean?
That they may perceive that this is your hand; you, LORD, have done it.
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
That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.THE KEY
The hand is recognized through what it does: the verse moves from a visible act to naming its agent.
THE MEANING
The reader’s plea is that even opponents recognize the LORD’s hand in what has been done. Knowing here means perceiving the agent through the act, not merely hearing a claim about who is responsible.
THE ROOT
יָדְךָ
yādekhā
GROWS FROM
יָד
Hand; also power or agency.
“Hand” gives the claim a concrete image of agency: the next clause identifies whose hand it is by naming what the LORD has done. The verse presents the deed as something by which its agent can be recognized.
ALSO GROWS
yād: Hand; by extension, power or agency.
יָד
The image lets the speaker point to the LORD’s agency in the deed.
bəyad: In the hand; under someone’s power or control.
בְּיַד
This usage shows how “hand” can carry the sense of agency and control as well as a body part.
יֵדְעוּ
yēdʿû
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
“perceive” in this verse is yēdʿû. The verse asks for recognition grounded in facing what has happened, not simply receiving information. The repeated claim, “this is thy hand” and “thou … hast done it”, makes knowing a recognition of the agent behind the act.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root carries knowing as something held or understood.
hôdîaʿ: To make known or declare.
הוֹדִיעַ
The related verb shows how an act can bring its agent into recognition.
עֲשִׂיתָהּ
ʿāśîtāh
GROWS FROM
עשה
ʿ-ś-h
To do or make.
The verb names an accomplished deed that can be pointed to: “this” hand is known through what the LORD has done. The root links doing and making, giving the act the weight of something brought about.
ALSO GROWS
maʿăśeh: A deed or work.
מַעֲשֶׂה
The deed is the visible ground for recognizing the hand behind it.
ʿōśeh: One who does or makes.
עֹשֶׂה
This form turns the action toward its agent, the focus of the verse’s final clause.
THE PATTERN
A deed can become the evidence by which the acting hand is recognized.
And the Egyptians shall perceive that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.The right hand of the LORD is lifted high; the right hand of the LORD makes strength.But if I do them, even if you do not trust me, lean your weight on the works, so that you may come to perceive, and keep on perceiving, that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.THE THREAD
And the Egyptians shall perceive that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.This verse joins the same two ideas: knowing the LORD and recognizing his hand in an act. The hand is not an abstract sign; what it does makes the one acting known.
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