What Does Psalm 72:6 Mean?
He comes down like rain upon the shorn grass, like showers that drip upon the earth.
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
He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.THE KEY
The rain descends to the grass after it is cut, so being cut back does not put you beyond nourishment.
THE MEANING
The one who comes down reaches you where life has already been cut back, like rain reaching mown grass and soaking the earth. The verse holds the cut and the watering in the same scene: what is shortened still receives what sustains it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being cut back means you are beyond nourishment.
THE ROOT
יֵרֵד
yēred
GROWS FROM
ירד
to descend, go down
“comes down” in this verse is yēred. The Hebrew makes descent the way the figure reaches the ground; the ground does not have to rise to meet him. Yarden, the Hebrew name for the Jordan, is associated with this same root of descending, making the downward movement part of the image of water reaching what lies below.
ALSO GROWS
yārad: to descend or go down
יָרַד
This is the verb’s root form: the care in the verse moves downward to reach the earth.
Yarden: Jordan, traditionally understood as “the descender”
יַרְדֵּן
The river’s name echoes the same descent carried by “come down,” joining the image of reaching water with the movement of a river.
גֵּז
gēz
GROWS FROM
גזז
to shear or cut off
Gez names the grass in its cut state, from the root used for shearing. The Hebrew keeps that cut condition visible in the scene: rain still comes to what has been shorn.
ALSO GROWS
gāzaz: to shear or cut off
גָּזַז
The verb makes the image’s cut-back state part of the word’s root family.
gōzēz: one who shears
גֹּזֵז
This branch shows that the word belongs to the language of shearing, sharpening the image of rain reaching what has been cut.
THE PATTERN
Life-giving presence descends as rain, reaching the ground and sustaining what grows there.
My instruction drips as the rain, and my saying trickles as the dew; as small rain on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass.Let us know; let us pursue to know the LORD. His going forth is set firm as the dawn, and he will come to us as the rain, as the late rain that pours on the earth.Yet he did not leave himself without witness, doing good, giving you rain from heaven and seasons that bear fruit, filling your hearts with food and gladness.THE THREAD
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from the heavens, and does not return there, but drenches the earth, and makes it bear and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater.“Cometh down” in Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root, ירד, as “come down” here. Isaiah carries the image further: the descending rain waters the earth until it brings forth and buds.
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