ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Psalms 33.16-17

Book: Psalms · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

14. From the place of his habitation he looketh forth Upon all the inhabitants of the earth, 15. He that fashioneth the hearts of them all, That considereth all their works.

16. There is no king saved by the multitude of a host: A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. 17. A horse is a vain thing for safety; Neither doth he deliver any by his great power.

  1. Behold, the eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear him, Upon them that hope in his lovingkindness; 19. To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. (Psalms 33:14-19, ASV)
WEB

14. From the place of his habitation he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, 15. he who fashions all of their hearts; and he considers all of their works.

16. There is no king saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. 17. A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither does he deliver any by his great power.

  1. Behold, Yahweh’s eye is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his loving kindness; 19. to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive in famine. (Psalms 33:14-19, WEB)
KJV

14. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 15. He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.

16. There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. 17. An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.

  1. Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; 19. To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. (Psalms 33:14-19, KJV)
YLT

14. From the fixed place of His dwelling, He looked unto all inhabitants of the earth; 15. Who is forming their hearts together, Who is attending unto all their works.

16. The king is not saved by the multitude of a force. A mighty man is not delivered, By abundance of power. 17. A false thing [is] the horse for safety, And by the abundance of his strength He doth not deliver.

  1. Lo, the eye of Jehovah [is] to those fearing Him, To those waiting for His kindness, 19. To deliver from death their soul, And to keep them alive in famine. (Psalms 33:14-19, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: the psalmist; the psalm carries no attribution
  • Audience: Israel gathered in worship; the Psalter is the congregation's book
  • Location: the sanctuary and its liturgy, rather than a narrative setting
  • Time period: the monarchy or later; individual psalms are difficult to date and the Psalter was compiled over centuries

Theological reading

The king is not saved by his great army; a mighty man is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation.

A deliberate demolition of the standard sources of national confidence, and it appears in a psalm of praise rather than in a lament, which means it is sung by a people rather than urged on them in crisis.

The war horse is the ancient equivalent of the decisive weapons system, and the Torah's instruction that the king should not multiply horses stands behind it. The psalm does not say armies are useless; it says they do not save, which is a claim about ultimate reliance rather than about military prudence.

The positive counterpart follows immediately: the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, to deliver their soul from death. The alternative to trusting force is not passivity but a different object of hope.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Passages:

Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.