What Does Psalm 147:20 Mean?
He has not done thus for any nation; and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise 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
He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.THE KEY
The dividing line is knowing: God’s judgments are disclosed as something a people can recognize, not only decrees handed down.
THE MEANING
The verse holds the reader before a distinction: the LORD’s judgments are known among Israel, while the nations are said not to know them. Here, judgment is something made known and understood, not merely a sentence that falls from above. “Praise ye the LORD” gives that disclosure its response.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that divine judgment means only punishment: these judgments are also something disclosed and made knowable.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁפָּטִים
mishpatim
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, decide, or render a ruling.
The verse does not present these as only penalties. Mishpat can name a ruling or an act of justice that orders what is right; alongside “known,” it depicts God’s judgments as something disclosed and understood. English “judgments” can sound like punishment alone, while the Hebrew word holds ruling, justice, and decision together.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or decide.
שָׁפַט
The verb behind mishpatim shows that these judgments are acts of deciding, not only outcomes imposed on someone.
shofet: A judge.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch names the one who discerns and decides, linking the judgments to an active source of justice.
mishpat: A judgment, ruling, or act of justice.
מִשְׁפָּט
The singular form shows the verse speaks of a body of judgments, a disclosed order rather than one isolated sentence.
יְדָעוּם
yeda’um from yada
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, recognize, or become acquainted with.
“they have not known them” in this verse is yeda’um from yada. The verb means more than having information about something; yada can describe personal acquaintance and recognition. In this verse, the contrast centers on whether the LORD’s judgments are known and recognized, not simply whether rules exist.
ALSO GROWS
da’at: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows that knowing can name an understanding held, illuminating the verse’s claim that the nations lack this knowledge of the judgments.
yodea: One who knows or recognizes.
יֹדֵעַ
This form makes knowing an active relation to what is known, echoing the verse’s emphasis on recognition of the judgments.
THE PATTERN
A people is distinguished by the divine words and judgments made known to them.
And what nation is so great, that has statutes and judgments so aligned as all this instruction which I set before you this day?Much, in every way. First, because they were entrusted with the words of God.For I have given them the words you gave me. They have taken hold of them, and they have known in truth that I came out from you, and they have leaned their full weight on the fact that you sent me.THE THREAD
He sets forth his word before Jacob, his statutes and his judgments before Israel.The same word-family for “judgments” appears just before this verse: first the LORD makes his word, statutes, and judgments known to Israel, then verse 20 says the nations have not known them. The root connects judging with a disclosed order that can be known.
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