What Does Psalm 34:11 Mean?
Come, children, and hear and respond to me. I train you in the awe of 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
Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.THE KEY
Listening is the doorway through which you learn awe of the LORD.
THE MEANING
You are invited to come close and listen. Awe of the LORD is something you can learn as you hear and receive instruction. Reverence takes shape in relationship: the teacher says, “unto me.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse dissolves the belief that awe of God is only a feeling that cannot be learned; it presents awe as something taught through listening.
THE ROOT
יִרְאַת
yir'at
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
Fear, reverence, or awe, depending on its object.
The word carries a range from fear to reverent awe; with the LORD as its object, it opens into awe. Here that awe is taught, so it is a way of perceiving that grows through listening.
ALSO GROWS
yare: To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
יָרֵא
The verb shows that awe is a response, and the verse presents that response as something you can learn.
mora: Fear or dread.
מוֹרָא
This related form preserves the word’s intensity: awe of the LORD is deep reverence, not casual admiration.
שִׁמְעוּ
shim'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, heed.
“hear and respond” in this verse is shim'u. The verse begins with responsive hearing. Listening is the first movement into the instruction that teaches awe.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar form makes clear that hearing can include a response, opening the listener to what is being taught.
shomea: One who hears; a listener.
שֹׁמֵעַ
The listener is not merely receiving sound but attending to instruction.
אֲלַמֶּדְכֶם
alammedkhem
GROWS FROM
למד
l-m-d
Learn and teach.
“train” in this verse is alammedkhem. Hebrew uses the same root for learning and teaching: the teacher brings the listener into learning. Awe is therefore presented as something that can be learned through relationship and instruction.
ALSO GROWS
lamad: To learn.
לָמַד
The learner’s action shares the root of the teacher’s action, linking instruction with what takes root in the listener.
talmid: Learner or disciple.
תַּלְמִיד
This branch shows the person formed through learning, illuminating how awe can become a way of understanding.
THE PATTERN
Awe of the LORD is learned as the beginning of wisdom and takes shape in a life ordered by that awareness.
The awe of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the set-apart ones is discernment.The head of wisdom is awe of the LORD. All who do his commandments have good insight. His praise stands for ages.Then the assemblies had wholeness throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were built up. And walking in the awe of the LORD and in the comfort of the Set-Apart Breath, they were multiplied.THE THREAD
The awe of the LORD is the head of knowledge, but fools make light of wisdom and straightening.The same phrase, “the fear of the LORD,” is paired here with the beginning of knowledge. Psalm 34:11 shows that this beginning can be taught through listening: awe opens the way to understanding.
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