What Does Psalm 148:12 Mean?
Both young men and maidens; old men and youths.
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
Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children:THE KEY
The Hebrew word translated “children” also names youths, bringing the emerging and elder generations into one chorus of praise.
THE MEANING
In the song’s call to praise, young men, maidens, elders, and youths all have a place. The season of life you inhabit does not put you outside that living chorus.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that praise belongs only to the mature: youths are named alongside elders.
THE ROOT
נְעָרִים
ne'arim
GROWS FROM
נ-ע-ר
n-ʿ-r
A youth or young person; the word can refer to boys and young men, not only small children.
The Hebrew ne’arim can describe youths beyond early childhood, so its sense overlaps with the earlier “young men.” The list places the young and old together, spanning the years of a life within the call to praise.
ALSO GROWS
na'ar: A youth, boy, young man, or young attendant.
נַעַר
This singular form shows that the Hebrew word rendered “children” can include youths beyond early childhood.
na'arah: A girl or young woman.
נַעֲרָה
This feminine form shares the youth word’s root, which names a life stage; the verse also names maidens explicitly.
זְקֵנִים
zeqenim
GROWS FROM
ז-ק-ן
z-q-n
To grow old or be aged.
“old men” in this verse is zeqenim. The same root names both age and elder status, so the verse’s elders are a generation within the gathered whole. Beside the youths, they show that neither the beginning nor the later years place someone beyond praise.
ALSO GROWS
zaqen: An old person or elder.
זָקֵן
This singular form shows how age can also mark the role of an elder.
ziqnah: Old age.
זִקְנָה
This related form names a life stage that the verse includes in the same call as youth.
THE PATTERN
The call to honor God moves across generations and includes the whole living creation.
One generation shouts of your works to another, and sets forth your strong deeds.And it shall be afterward, that I will pour out my breath upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your elders will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.And every created thing in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that is in them, I hear them saying, Blessing, and honor, and weight, and power, be to the one who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, into the ages of the ages.THE THREAD
And even when my beard is grey, God, do not let go of me, until I set forth your arm to the generation, and your might to all who are coming.The word translated “old” comes from the same ז-ק-ן (z-q-n) root as “old men” here. Psalm 148 gathers elders into praise; Psalm 71 shows an elder’s voice carrying God’s strength to the next generation.
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