What Does Psalm 99:6 Mean?
Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his nature; they call out to the LORD, and he answers them.
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
Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon the LORD, and he answered them.THE KEY
Calling on the LORD’s name is a living exchange: those who invoke him are met by his answer.
THE MEANING
Moses, Aaron, and Samuel stand as examples of people who call upon the LORD and receive an answer. The verse presents the name they call upon as belonging to the one who responds. That exchange speaks to the reader now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that prayer is only speech sent upward with no answer: this verse joins calling and response in the same sentence.
THE ROOT
קֹרְאֵי
qor'ei
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
To call, summon, or proclaim aloud.
“call upon his nature” in this verse is qor'ei. The verse uses this root both for those who call upon the LORD’s name and for their act of calling. Its branches also include public reading and proclamation, linking invocation with a name spoken aloud.
ALSO GROWS
qeri'ah: Calling or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
This branch shows how the root can describe a voiced act, as in calling upon the LORD’s name.
miqra: A convocation or proclamation; a reading.
מִקְרָא
The shared root carries calling into public gathering and proclamation, making the callers’ act more than silent thought.
יַעֲנֵם
ya'anem
GROWS FROM
ענה
anah
To answer or respond.
“answers” in this verse is ya'anem. The answer is not a separate idea added to the calling; it is the other side of the exchange the verse describes. The root also forms words for an answer and for one who responds.
ALSO GROWS
ma'aneh: An answer or response.
מַעֲנֶה
This noun makes the verse’s response tangible: the LORD’s act is an answer to those who call.
oneh: One answering or responding.
עוֹנֶה
This form names the responder, illuminating the verse’s direct statement that the LORD answers them.
THE PATTERN
Calling upon the LORD is met by divine hearing and response.
The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.And this is the open speech we hold toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.THE THREAD
And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.The same קרא root that describes Moses and Samuel as callers here describes God calling Moses by name. The exchange runs in both directions: the human calls upon the LORD, and the LORD’s voice summons the human.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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