What Does Psalm 78:16 Mean?
He brought out trickles from the cliff, and made waters run down like rivers.
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 brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.THE KEY
The rock is not merely where the water appears: it becomes the place from which God brings it forth.
THE MEANING
God brings streams out of what appears sealed and carries the waters downward in river-like flow. The movement grows from emergence to abundance: what comes out does not remain a trickle.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A place that looks closed does not prove that nothing life-giving can emerge from it.
THE ROOT
וַיּוֹצִא
wayyotsi
GROWS FROM
יצא
y-ts-ʾ
to go out or come forth; in this form, to bring out
“brought out” in this verse is wayyotsi. The verb is a causative form of יצא (yatsa, to go out): God brings the streams forth from the rock. The same root describes water coming out of a rock in Exodus 17:6, linking the two scenes through the image of stone becoming a place of emergence.
ALSO GROWS
motsa: an outlet, issue, or source
מוֹצָא
The root can name not only the act of coming out but also the place or point from which something proceeds.
yetsi’ah: a going out or departure
יְצִיאָה
This branch shows the root’s basic movement: something leaves a place and comes forth.
THE PATTERN
God’s provision can emerge from a source that appears incapable of yielding it.
Look, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You will strike the rock, and waters will come out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel.Behold, I am making a new thing; now it sprouts; will you not perceive it? I will even lay a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the parched land.The one who leans his weight into me, as the writing has said, rivers of living waters will flow from his belly.THE THREAD
Look, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You will strike the rock, and waters will come out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel.Both verses use יצא (yatsa, to go out or come forth): Exodus says water comes out of the rock, while the psalm says God brings streams out of it. The shared root ties the rock to emergence in both verses.
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