What Does Psalm 136:6 Mean?
To him who hammers out the earth above the waters, for his faithful love reaches to the ages.
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
To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever.THE KEY
The earth is described with the same root as the expanse above the waters: what gives you footing is a world spread open and held by faithful love.
THE MEANING
Your ground is pictured as spread above the waters, with room to stand where they might otherwise cover everything. Its place is held within faithful love that endures through every age.
THE ROOT
רֹקַע
rōqaʿ
GROWS FROM
ר־ק־ע
r-q-ʿ
To beat out, spread, or extend into a surface.
“hammers out” in this verse is rōqaʿ. This same root names the expanse set among the waters and describes metal being beaten out into plates. The verse pictures the earth as a world spread open above the waters, giving ground and space to stand.
ALSO GROWS
rāqîaʿ: Expanse, firmament
רָקִיעַ
Genesis uses this related word for the expanse placed amid the waters, revealing the shared image of space spread out over them.
riqqeʿum: They beat them out into plates (Numbers 17:3)
רִקְּעוּם
This form shows the root’s concrete sense: a surface is extended by beating it out.
THE PATTERN
A livable world takes shape as waters are bounded and ground is given room.
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?For they wish this to escape them, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth set together out of water and through water.THE THREAD
And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it part the waters from the waters."The word translated “firmament” comes from the same root as “stretched out” here. Read together, the verses show space and ground taking shape as the waters are ordered.
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