What Does Psalm 33:8 Mean?
Let all the earth stand in awe of the LORD, and let all who settle in the inhabited world tremble before him.
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 all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.THE KEY
Two different Hebrew fear-words make awe the shared response of every land and every inhabitant.
THE MEANING
The LORD is the one before whom the entire inhabited world is summoned to awe. You are included in the verse’s address: its scope reaches from all the earth to everyone who lives in it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Awe is not reserved for a select people or a private religious few; the verse twice declares its scope universal.
THE ROOT
יִירְאוּ
yirʾû
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear or revere; with the LORD as the one feared, to stand in awe.
“stand in awe of” in this verse is yirʾû. This root holds fear and reverence together; with the LORD as its object, it speaks as awe. English “fear” can sound like panic alone, while the Hebrew leaves room for reverence.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾāh: Fear, reverence, awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun form makes clear that the verse’s response can be reverent awe, not only alarm.
môrāʾ: Dread, reverence.
מוֹרָא
This related form shows the root’s range from dread to reverence, deepening the force of fearing the LORD.
יָגוּרוּ
yāgūrū
GROWS FROM
גור
To dread, fear, or be in awe.
“tremble before him” in this verse is yāgūrū. The second clause uses a different Hebrew verb from the first: it answers yareʾ with another word for fear or dread. Together, the two lines extend the summons across all the earth and everyone who inhabits it.
ALSO GROWS
yāgūr: He fears or dreads.
יָגוּר
This singular form of the verb shows that the awe named in the verse is a personal response as well as a universal one.
māgōr: Dread, terror.
מָגוֹר
This related noun shows the root’s force at its most intense, giving the second line a note of deep seriousness.
THE PATTERN
Awe before the LORD is presented as the fitting response of the whole inhabited world.
Bow down to the LORD in set-apart splendor; tremble before his face, all the earth.O be in awe of the LORD, you his set-apart ones; for there is no lack for those in awe of him.Who will not stand in awe of you, Lord, and give weight to your name? For you alone are set apart, and all the nations come and bow down before your face, for your judgments are made visible.THE THREAD
O be in awe of the LORD, you his set-apart ones; for there is no lack for those in awe of him.The Hebrew word translated “fear” comes from the same root, ירא (yareʾ), in both verses. Psalm 33:8 names the response as the earth’s shared awe; Psalm 34:9 connects that same awe with “no want.”
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