What Does Psalm 149:6 Mean?
Let the lifted praises of God be in their throats, and a two-edged sword in their hand.
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
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand;THE KEY
The verse puts rising exaltation in the throat and a blade named for “mouths” in the hand, making praise and cutting force sound through the same image.
THE MEANING
Here, exaltation is voiced while a double-edged sword is held; praise and armed force stand together without the violence being explained away. The Hebrew describes the blade as a “sword of mouths,” so voice and cutting edge echo in one line while the sword remains a weapon in the scene.
THE ROOT
פִּיפִיּוֹת
pîpiyyōt
GROWS FROM
פֶּה
Mouth; the form in this phrase means “mouths.”
“two-edged” in this verse is pîpiyyōt. The blade’s two edges are expressed through the image of mouths. That places a mouth-shaped edge beside the praise voiced in the throat, joining voice and force without turning the sword into something other than a weapon.
ALSO GROWS
peh: mouth
פֶּה
This is the body-word beneath the blade’s “mouths” image.
pi: mouth of
פִּי
This form carries the same mouth-word into a phrase, preserving the link between the blade’s name and voiced praise.
רֹמְמוֹת
romemot
GROWS FROM
רום
To rise, be high, or lift up.
“lifted praises” in this verse is romemot. The praise here carries the sense of exaltations, what is lifted high. The word’s upward movement stands beside the sword in the hand, so the verse holds elevation and force in one embodied scene.
ALSO GROWS
ram: high, exalted
רָם
It shows the root’s basic sense of height within the word for praise.
marom: height, high place
מָרוֹם
It extends the same root into a place of elevation, illuminating the upward sense in “high praises.”
herim: he raised, lifted up
הֵרִים
This verb makes the root’s lifting motion explicit: praise raises what it exalts.
THE PATTERN
Scripture repeatedly places a mouth’s utterance beside the piercing force of a sword.
He has set my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he has hidden me, and set me as a polished arrow; in his quiver he has hidden me.For the word of God is living and working, and sharper than any two-edged sword, reaching through even to the dividing of living soul and breath, of joints and marrow, and it separates the inward movements and thoughts of the heart.He holds in his right hand seven stars, and from his mouth comes a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face is like the sun shining in its power.THE THREAD
He has set my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he has hidden me, and set me as a polished arrow; in his quiver he has hidden me.Both verses use חֶרֶב (ḥerev, sword) and place it beside the mouth. Psalm 149 holds the blade in the hand while naming it through “mouths”; Isaiah turns the mouth itself into a sharp sword.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us