Psalms 108:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also is my helmet. Judah is my scepter.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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מְחֹקְקִֽי

châqaq

H2710

“decreeing · me”

Verb, Piel, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular

Appears 19× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 49:10

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 728

to cut out, decree, inscribe, set, engrave, portray, govern - (Qal) - to cut in - to cut in or on, cut upon, engrave, inscribe - to trace, mark out - to engrave, inscribe (of a law) - (Poel) - to inscribe, enact, decree - one who decrees, lawgiver (participle) - (Pual) something decreed, the law (participle) - (Hophal) to be inscribed

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
7: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is מְחֹקְקִֽי to decree H2710 — appearing just 19 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מְחֹקְקִֽי to decree H2710 occurs in 19 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

1 verb
6 nouns
2 prepositions

Verb forms

מְחֹקְקִֽי Piel · Participle Active

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 15 words from the Hebrew and 19 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 17 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Psalms 108:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the obedience of the peoples be.
Psalms 122:5 For there are set thrones for judgment, The thrones of David's house.
Joshua 13:8–11 With him the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them:
1 Samuel 28:4 The Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in Shunem: and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in Gilboa.
2 Samuel 2:8 Now Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul's host, had taken Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim;

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

You’re reading Greek Psalm 107 (Hebrew Psalm 108). The Septuagint counts the superscription, so verse numbers can differ from the Hebrew — chapter-level alignment, not verse-by-verse. Numbering follows Rahlfs.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Psalms 108:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

לִ֤י גִלְעָ֨ד לִ֤י מְנַשֶּׁ֗ה וְ֭אֶפְרַיִם מָע֣וֹז רֹאשִׁ֑י יְ֝הוּדָ֗ה מְחֹקְקִֽי

Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also is my helmet. Judah is my scepter.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Greek Psalm 107:8 Septuagint · lemma form

ὁ θεός λαλέω ἐν ὁ ἅγιος αὐτός ὑψόω καί διαμερίζω σικιμα καί ὁ κοιλάς ὁ σκηνή διαμετρέω

Galaad is mine; and Manasses is mine; and Ephraim is the help of my head; Judas is my king;

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Psalms 108:8 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

J. A. Alexander on Psalms

Joseph Addison Alexander

9. (Psa 108:8) To me (belongs) Gilead, to me Manasseh, and Ephraim the strength of my head, Judah my lawgiver. See above, on Psa 60:7. The only variation is the omission, in the verse before us, of the and after Gilead.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

8. Gilead and Manasseh, i.e. the land of Bashan in which half the tribe of Manasseh settled, stand for the territory east of the Jordan and the tribes settled there: Ephraim and Judah stand for the tribes west of the Jordan. God claims all as His own: therefore all can claim God’s protection.

Ephraim &c.] Render with R.V.,

Ephraim also is the defence of mine head;

Judah is my sceptre.

Ephraim, as the most powerful tribe and the chief defence of the nation, is compared to the warrior’s helmet: Judah, as the tribe to which belonged the Davidic sovereignty, is compared to the royal sceptre, or, as the same word is rendered in R.V. of Gen_49:10, to which the present passage alludes, ‘the ruler’s staff.’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Gilead is mine ... - This is taken from Psa 60:7. The only change is the omission of the word and before “Manasseh.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Treasury of David

Charles H. Spurgeon

Ver. 8. Gilead is mine. Thankful hearts dwell upon the gifts which the Lord has given them, and think it no task to mention them one by one.

Manasseh is mine. I have it already, and it is to me the token and assurance that the rest of the promised heritage will also come into my possession in due time. If we gratefully acknowledge what we have we shall be in better heart for obtaining that which as yet we have not received. He who gives us Gilead and Manasseh will not fail to put the rest of the promised territory into our hands.

Ephraim also is the strength of mine head. This tribe furnished David with more than twenty thousand "mighty men of valour, famous throughout the house of their fathers": the faithful loyalty of this band was, no doubt, a proof that the rest of the tribe were with him, and so he regarded them as the helmet of the state, the guard of his royal crown.

Judah is my lawgiver. There had he seated the government and chief courts of justice. No other tribe could lawfully govern but Judah: till Shiloh came the divine decree fixed the legal power in that state. To us also there is no lawgiver but our Lord who sprang out of Judah; and whenever Rome, or Canterbury, or any other power shall attempt to set up laws and ordinances for the church, we have but one reply"Judah is my lawgiver." Thus the royal psalmist rejoiced because his own land had been cleansed of intruders, and a regular government had been set up, and guarded by an ample force, and in all this he found encouragement to plead for victory over his foreign foes. Even thus do we plead with the Lord that as in one land and another Christ's holy gospel has been set up and maintained, so also in other lands the power of his sceptre of grace may be owned till the whole earth shall bow before him, and the Edom of Antichrist shall be crushed beneath his feet.

Ver. 8. Ephraim also is the strength of mine head. As Ephraim was the most populous of all the tribes, he appropriately terms it the strength of his head, that is, of his dominions. John Calvin.

Ver. 8. Judah is my lawgiver. Jesus the sole and only lawmaker in the church.

Psalms 108:9*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

God spoke with His holiness that I would reign and that the time would come that I would rejoice in His word.

that I would allot a portion I shall divide the land of my enemies to Israel, like (Gen. 48: 22): “one portion (שכם) more than your brethren.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Psalms, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 9 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is châqaq (“to decree”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to decree” (châqaq) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Genesis 49:10, which shares the word «to decree», read alongside this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«מְחֹקְקִֽי» is a Piel Participle Active verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how J. A. Alexander on Psalms and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 17 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 9 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.