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Psalm 19:4

"Their line" or "their voice"

The Hebrew says the heavens' qav, "line" (a measuring cord), has gone out through all the earth. The Greek reads "their sound" (phthongos), which Paul quotes in Romans 10:18; Giguet has "leur voix," the Vulgate "sonus eorum."

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The psalm as first composedPsalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed
Greek
  1. Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Psalter
Latin
  1. Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)c. AD 386–392, revised from the GreekTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Psalms composed over centuries (c. 10th–4th century BC; debated)

    The psalm as first composed

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. About forty Psalms manuscripts from Qumran, Masada and Nahal Hever (c. 2nd century BC – 1st century AD) are the oldest copies.

  2. c. AD 386–392, revised from the Greek

    Jerome's Gallican Psalter (Clementine Vulgate)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek Psalter (Origen's Hexapla)

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum, et in fines orbis terræ verba eorum.

    Latin numbering: Psalm 18:5. Jerome revised this Latin Psalter from the Greek, so it is a witness to the Greek, not to the Hebrew.

  3. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The psalm as first composed

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    בְּכָל־הָאָ֨רֶץ ׀ יָ֘צָ֤א קַוָּ֗ם וּבִקְצֵ֣ה תֵ֭בֵל מִלֵּיהֶ֑ם לַ֝שֶּׁ֗מֶשׁ שָֽׂם־אֹ֥הֶל בָּהֶֽם׃

    Into all the earth their line (qavvam) has gone out, and to the end of the world their words. For the sun he has set a tent in them

    Hebrew numbering: Psalm 19:5. Hebrew counts the title as verse 1.

  4. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

  5. Old Greek c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Psalter (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Psalter

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Leur voix s’est répandue sur toute la terre; leur parole est parvenue au bout du monde.

    Greek numbering: Psalm 18:4. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text; not checked against Rahlfs' critical edition.

What changed, and why

Two explanations: the Greek translators read qolam, "their voice," a slightly different Hebrew word that fits the parallel "their words"; or they interpreted "line" as the string of an instrument and so its sound. No Hebrew manuscript with qolam is known to the site.

KJV keeps "line"; many modern versions (NRSV, NIV) adopt "voice" from the Greek.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Hebrew has qavvam, "their line."
  • Independently documentedThe Greek reads "their sound."
  • Plausible, not confirmedThe Greek translators read qolam.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Psalm 19: The Heavens Declare →"The heavens declare the glory of God." Day and night speak without words, and their "line" goes out through all the earth. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun, which runs like a bridegroom and a champion; nothing is hidden from its heat. Then the poem turns to the torah of the LORD: perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, sweeter than honey. The speaker asks to be cleansed from hidden faults: "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer."