What Does Psalm 97:7 Mean?
Let all who serve carved images be shamed, all who boast in worthless things; bow down to him, all you gods.
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
Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.THE KEY
The Hebrew sets the near-sounding אֱלִילִים (elilim, idols) beside אֱלֹהִים (elohim, gods): people boast in the idols, while the gods themselves are told to bow before the LORD.
THE MEANING
Whenever something made or contingent receives ultimate praise, the verse exposes the mismatch: people boast in idols, while every power called a god is told to bow before the LORD. No created power holds the highest place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that something made, carved, or widely revered can become ultimate through human devotion.
THE ROOT
הַמִּתְהַלְלִים
hamithalelim
GROWS FROM
הלל
halal
praise, celebrate, boast
“boast in” in this verse is hamithalelim. The verb translated “boast” comes from halal, the same root used for praise. Its repeated l-sounds echo אֱלִילִים (elilim, idols) in the Hebrew phrase, binding the worshippers’ boast to the objects of it.
ALSO GROWS
hallel: praise
הַלֵּל
This branch makes the connection plain: the root behind boasting here also names praise.
tehillah: praise, song of praise
תְּהִלָּה
It shows praise as another growth from the same root, now attached in the verse to idols.
hallelu-Yah: Praise Yah
הַלְלוּיָהּ
This familiar praise-word shares the root behind the boast, revealing how praise can be directed toward very different objects.
הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ
hishtachavu
GROWS FROM
שחה
shachah
bend or bow down
“bow down” in this verse is hishtachavu. The Hebrew verb makes worship a posture: “bow yourselves down.” The command puts every power called a god into that posture before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
shachah: to bow down, prostrate oneself
שָׁחָה
This is the basic verb whose bodily sense remains present in the command.
mishtachaveh: one who bows down
מִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה
This form describes a person by the same posture the verse commands of the gods.
פֶּסֶל
pesel
GROWS FROM
פסל
pasal
hew, carve, shape
“carved images” in this verse is pesel. The word for the image carries its making in its name: a pesel is a shaped, carved object. The verse places such an object receiving human boast beside the command that the powers themselves bow before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
pasal: to hew or carve
פָּסַל
The verb reveals the act behind the carved image named in the verse.
pesel: a carved image
פֶּסֶל
The noun keeps the image’s crafted nature audible as people boast in it.
THE PATTERN
No power or object treated as ultimate stands outside the LORD’s rule; the powers themselves bow before him.
For all the gods of the nations are nothings; but the LORD made the heavens.I have sworn by myself; the word has gone out of my mouth in alignment, and shall not turn back. To me every knee shall bend, and every tongue shall swear.And again, when he brings the firstborn into the inhabited earth, he says, and let all the messengers of God bow down to him.THE THREAD
For all the gods of the nations are nothings; but the LORD made the heavens.Psalm 96:5 uses אֱלִילִים (elilim, idols), the same Hebrew word behind the idols in this verse. There, the gods of the nations are called idols and set against the LORD who made the heavens; here, people boast in those idols while אֱלֹהִים (elohim, gods) are told to bow before him.
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