What Does Psalm 135:20 Mean?
Bless the LORD, O house of Levi; you who are in awe of the LORD, bless the LORD.
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
Bless the LORD, O house of Levi: ye that fear the LORD, bless the LORD.THE KEY
The verse gives one blessing to Levi’s house and to everyone who stands in awe, making reverence a shared voice beyond one lineage.
THE MEANING
Levi (לֵוִי, Levi, “joined”) is addressed as a house, and the call opens outward to all who stand in awe of the LORD. Both groups speak the same blessing, so reverence becomes a shared voice now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that only Levi’s house can bless the LORD falls away: the verse also addresses everyone who stands in awe.
THE ROOT
בָּרְכוּ
barekhu
GROWS FROM
ברך
To bless; traditionally linked with bending the knee, giving blessing a bodily resonance of reverence.
The same call is given to both groups, and its root carries the shape of a bent knee. “Bless” holds more than praise spoken aloud: it evokes reverence expressed through posture.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: Knee, the body part that bends.
בֶּרֶךְ
This word gives blessing a bodily shape: the call carries the resonance of bowing before the LORD.
berakhah: A blessing.
בְּרָכָה
The related noun makes clear that the verse’s repeated verb belongs to a wider word-family of blessing.
יִרְאֵי
yir’ei
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear, revere, or stand in awe; directed toward God, this carries the sense of awe.
“you who are in awe of the LORD” in this verse is yir’ei. The verse names people by their response to the LORD: they are the ones who stand in awe. Their reverence and Levi’s household are joined in the same repeated blessing.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Fear, reverence, or awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun names the response that identifies the people addressed in the verse.
nora: Awe-inspiring or formidable.
נוֹרָא
The same root can describe what evokes awe, linking the people’s response with the LORD before whom they stand.
לֵוִי
Levi
GROWS FROM
לוה
To join, attach, or accompany.
The name Levi is tied in Genesis to being joined. Here the house of Levi is addressed alongside all who stand in awe, and both share the same call to bless.
ALSO GROWS
yillaveh: Will be joined or attached.
יִלָּוֶה
Leah uses this verb in Genesis 29:34 when she explains the name Levi, making the name’s connection to joining explicit.
levayah: Accompaniment or escort.
לְוָיָה
This related word carries the sense of joining someone along a way, echoing the joining held in Levi’s name.
THE PATTERN
Blessing the LORD is a shared utterance that reaches beyond one household to the whole company of those who serve and revere God.
But we bless the LORD from now and into the ages. Praise the LORD!A Song of degrees. Behold, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, standing in the house of the LORD through the nights.Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One, who has blessed us with every blessing of breath in the heavenly places, in the Anointed One.THE THREAD
A Song of degrees. Behold, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, standing in the house of the LORD through the nights.It repeats the same Hebrew imperative, בָּרְכוּ (barekhu, “bless!”), and extends the call from Levi’s house to all the LORD’s servants. The shared root gives both verses the same kneeling resonance of reverence.
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