What Does Psalm 98:7 Mean?
Let the sea thunder, and what fills it; the world, and those who settle in it.
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
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for the sea’s roar also means thunder, so the verse hears creation’s praise as a world-filling sound.
THE MEANING
The sea, everything within it, the world, and its inhabitants all belong to one response. Praise is not confined to human voices; the created world itself participates.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The world is only silent scenery, and praise belongs to human voices alone.
THE ROOT
יִרְעַם
yir'am
GROWS FROM
רעם
To thunder, rumble, or roar.
The sea’s roar comes from the same root as thunder, giving its sound a forceful, crashing quality. The verse presents creation’s praise as something that resounds through the whole world.
ALSO GROWS
ra'am: Thunder, a rumbling sound.
רַעַם
This noun makes audible the same thunderous sound carried by the sea’s roar.
hir'im: Made to thunder or roar.
הִרְעִים
This verb form shows the root describing the act of producing a thunderous sound.
וּמְלֹאוֹ
umelo'o
GROWS FROM
מלא
To be full or to fill.
“what fills it” in this verse is umelo'o. The phrase names the sea by its fullness: its extent and all that it contains. Paired with the roar, the verse gives voice to the sea together with its full contents.
ALSO GROWS
melo: Fullness, contents.
מְלֹא
It names what fills the sea, widening the image beyond the water’s surface.
mille: To fill.
מִלֵּא
This form shares the root of “fulness” and emphasizes the sea as filled throughout.
THE PATTERN
The created world is not mute scenery: it voices praise, joy, and travail before God.
Praise the LORD from the earth, you great serpents, and all the deeps.For you shall go out in joy, and be carried forth in wholeness. The mountains and the hills shall burst into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their palms.For we know that the whole creation groans together and labors together in the pangs of birth until now.THE THREAD
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth leap; let the sea roar, and what fills it.Psalm 96:11 repeats the same pairing: the sea roars with all its fullness. Both verses use יִרְעַם (yir’am), from רעם, so the sea’s thunderous voice belongs to a recurring picture of creation answering God.
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