What Does Psalm 19:6 Mean?
From the edge of the heavens is his going out, and his circling to their edges; and nothing is hidden from his heat.
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
His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.THE KEY
The sun’s heat reaches beyond what the eye can see, so concealment does not mean escape from its reach.
THE MEANING
You live beneath a sun whose path spans the sky and whose heat reaches what sight cannot follow; what is hidden remains within its warmth. The verse measures the sun’s reach by what it touches as well as by the path it crosses.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what sight cannot find is beyond all reach; the verse says nothing is hidden from the sun’s heat.
THE ROOT
נִסְתָּר
nistar
GROWS FROM
סתר
to hide or conceal
“is hidden” in this verse is nistar. English presents “hid” as a state, while its Hebrew root also names the act of hiding and concealment. The verse says concealment does not put anything beyond the sun’s heat.
ALSO GROWS
satar: to hide, conceal
סָתַר
The verb makes clear that “hid” belongs to a word family about concealment.
seter: a hiding place, a secret
סֵתֶר
This branch shows how the same root can name what is hidden as well as the act of hiding it.
מֵחַמָּתוֹ
mechammato
GROWS FROM
חמם
to grow warm, become hot
The line identifies the sun’s reach through heat, not only through visible light. This word family joins the sun above with the warmth felt below.
ALSO GROWS
chamam: to grow warm, become hot
חָמַם
The verb presents heat as an active change that can be felt.
chammah: the sun; heat
חַמָּה
This related noun can name the sun or its heat, joining the source with its felt effect.
THE PATTERN
A presence that fills its domain reaches what darkness or concealment appears to cover.
Even darkness does not darken from you; the night lights up like day, and darkness is as light to you.But for you who stand in awe of my name, the sun of alignment shall rise with healing in its wings, and you shall go out and leap like calves from the stall.And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not take hold of it.THE THREAD
Who can tell the wanderings apart? From what is hidden, cleanse me.The Hebrew root סתר (satar, to hide or conceal) appears in both “hid” here and “secret” in verse 12. The psalm’s image moves from the sun reaching what is hidden in the world to the speaker’s own concealed faults.
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