What Does Psalm 93:4 Mean?
The LORD in the height is mightier than the voices of many waters, than the mighty breakers of the sea.
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
The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls both the sea-breakers and the LORD mighty, then places the LORD above the very force that breaks.
THE MEANING
The force breaking over you is real, loud, and greater than your own strength. Yet it is not the highest power in the scene: the LORD remains above it and mightier than its surge.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This dissolves the belief that a force overwhelming you must therefore be the ultimate power.
THE ROOT
אַדִּיר
ʾaddîr
GROWS FROM
אדר
ʾ-d-r
To be great, majestic, or mighty.
“mighty” in this verse is ʾaddîr. Hebrew repeats this same adjective for the breakers and the LORD: they share the quality of might, but not the height. English conveys the comparison; the repeated root makes the scale unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
ʾaddîr: Mighty or majestic.
אַדִּיר
This is the adjective used for both the sea-breakers and the LORD, placing them on a shared scale of might.
ʾadderet: A mantle or cloak, a distinguished outer garment.
אַדֶּרֶת
This related word carries the root’s sense of imposing majesty into a visible covering, echoing the verse’s picture of might that fills the scene.
מִשְׁבְּרֵי
mishberey
GROWS FROM
שבר
sh-b-r
To break or shatter.
The Hebrew names these waves as breakers, defining them by what they do: break. The verse leaves their destructive force intact and says that even this breaking force is beneath the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
shāvar: To break or shatter.
שָׁבַר
The verb makes the force inside the word for breakers plain: these are waves that break.
mishbār: A breaker or wave.
מִשְׁבָּר
Psalm 42:7 uses this same word for breakers that go over the speaker, showing the personal force this verse places beneath the LORD.
קוֹלֹת
qōlōt
GROWS FROM
קול
q-w-l
Voice or sound.
The word translated “noise” is plural: voices or sounds. English compresses the many waters’ chorus into a blur, while Hebrew lets their roar remain a multitude of voices beneath the LORD’s might.
ALSO GROWS
qōl: A voice or sound.
קוֹל
The singular form shows that the waters’ noise belongs to the same word-family as a voice that can be heard.
qōlōt: Voices or sounds; in some contexts, thunder.
קוֹלֹת
The plural form used here can name a rumbling chorus, preserving the full scale of the waters’ roar.
THE PATTERN
The sea’s breaking force is real, yet it remains beneath a higher authority.
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters. The God of weight thunders. The LORD is upon many waters.And said, This far shall you come, but no further, and here shall your swelling waves be held?And waking, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Be silent. Be muzzled. And the wind wore itself out, and a great calm came.THE THREAD
Deep calls to deep at the voice of your waterspouts. All your breakers and your rolling waves cross over me.Psalm 42:7 uses מִשְׁבָּר (mishbār, breaker or wave), from שבר (sh-b-r, break or shatter), the same word-family as the sea-breakers here. There the breakers go over the speaker; Psalm 93 places the LORD above them, making the contrast intimate rather than abstract.
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