What Does Psalm 96:7 Mean?
Bring to the LORD, families of the peoples; bring to the LORD weight and strength.
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
Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.THE KEY
The Hebrew makes “glory” carry weight: the peoples are called to recognize the LORD’s full weight and strength.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you among the families of peoples: glory and strength belong to the LORD. Kavod means weight as well as honor, so the verse names his glory as the full weight of who he is.
THE ROOT
כָּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
Be heavy; carry weight.
Kavod comes from the root of heaviness. Its meaning lets glory carry substance and weight, so giving the LORD glory is recognizing the full weight of who he is.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
This adjective makes the physical sense of weight visible inside the word translated “glory.”
kibbed: Honored, treated as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
This verb connects giving honor with assigning weight.
עֹז
ʿoz
GROWS FROM
עזז
ʿ-z-z
Be strong; prevail; be fierce.
The word for strength belongs to a root that describes being strong and forceful. Beside kavod, it gives the LORD’s glory both weight and might.
ALSO GROWS
ʿazaz: To be strong, to prevail.
עָזַז
This verb shows strength as active power, not just a quality or possession.
ʿaz: Strong, fierce.
עָז
This adjective carries the forceful quality that עֹז names as strength.
THE PATTERN
Across Scripture, the LORD’s glory is weight that calls forth recognition of his strength.
A Psalm of David. Give to the LORD, you sons of the mighty; give to the LORD weight and strength.Give to the LORD, families of the peoples, give to the LORD weight and strength.For our light pressure, which is for a moment, works for us a heavy weight, the weight of the ages, overflowing measure upon measure.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David. Give to the LORD, you sons of the mighty; give to the LORD weight and strength.Psalm 29:1 uses the same Hebrew words, kavod for glory and ʿoz for strength. Their repetition shows the same weight and might being recognized among the mighty as among all peoples.
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