Psalms 29:6
in Psalms 29He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild-ox.
KJV
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
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This verse in Psalms 29
Commentary
14 notes on this verseHe maketh them also to skip like a calf,.... That is, the cedars, the branches being broken off, or they torn up by the roots, and tossed about by the wind; which motion is compared to that of a calf that leaps and skips about; Lebanon and Sirion, like a young unicorn; that is, these mountains move and skip about through the force of thunder, and the violence of an earthquake attending it; so historians report that mountains have moved from place to place, and they have met and dashed against one another (d).
This site's exposition
breaks the cedars
on Psalms 29:5-6
Cedars of Lebanon were the strongest timber the ancient world knew, and the voice breaks them. Sirion is the Sidonian name for Mount Hermon, given at Deuteronomy 3:9. Both mountains skip under the thunder, one like a calf and one like a young wild ox.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
"And shall bruise them as the calf of Libanus" [Psalm 29:6]. And when their proud exaltation has been cut off, He will lay them low after the imitation of His Own humility, who like a calf was led to slaughter [Isaiah 53:7] by the nobility of this world. "For the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers agreed together against the Lord, and against His Christ." "And the Beloved is as the young of the unicorns." For even He the Beloved, and the Only One of the Father, "emptied Himself" of His glory; and was made man, [Philippians 2:7] like a child of the Jews, that were "ignorant of God's righteousness," [Romans 10:3] and proudly boasting of their own righteousness as peculiarly theirs.
The people who believe, freed from that error [idolatry] and called beloved for that reason, will be invincible and unconquerable in being rid of polytheism and worshiping one Godhead.
This animal is called the unicorn, but I cannot say that I have seen him. But I have seen four brazen figures of him set up in the four-towered palace of the King of Ethiopia. From these figures I have been able to draw him …
The Medieval Church2 voices
Next he recalls the benefits bestowed after the crossing. And this can be understood in two ways. First, through the removal of evil. Second, through the conferring of goods, at "The voice of the Lord shaking." Concerning the first, he does two things. First, he …
Likewise, "And he will reduce them like a calf." Here the perfection of conversion is set forth. Mount Lebanon is very rich in pastures, and the priests, on account of the abundance of victims, had cattle graze there. And therefore, "He will reduce them like …
7 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Them - The cedars; which being broken by the thunder, the parts of them are suddenly and violently hurled hither and thither. Sirion - An high mountain beyond Jordan joining to Lebanon. Lebanon and Sirion are said to skip or leap, both here, and chap. cxiv, 4, by a poetical hyperbole.
Some understand it of the violent winds which shook the cedars, and sometimes tore off their aspiring tops. Earthquakes also shook the ground itself on which the trees grew, and made Lebanon and Sirion to dance; the wilderness of Kadesh also was in like manner shaken (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Them - The cedars; which being broken by the thunder, the parts of them are suddenly and violently hurled hither and thither. Sirion - An high mountain beyond Jordan joining to Lebanon. Lebanon and Sirion are said to skip or leap, both here, and chap. cxiv, 4, by a poetical hyperbole.
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. Not only the trees, but the mountains themselves move as though they frisked and leaped like young bulls or antelopes. As our own poets would mention hills and valleys known to them, so the Psalmist hears the crash and roar among the ranges of Libanus, and depicts the tumult in graphic terms.
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. Not only the trees, but the mountains themselves move as though they frisked and leaped like young bulls or antelopes. As our own poets would mention hills and valleys known to them, so the Psalmist hears the crash and roar among the ranges of Libanus, and depicts the tumult in graphic terms. Thus sings one of our own countrymen:—"Amid Carnavon's mountains rages loud The repercussive roar: with mighty crash Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks Of Penmaen Mawr, heaped hideous to the sky, Tumble the smitten cliffs; and Snowdon's peak, Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load. Far seen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze, And Thule bellows through her utmost isles." The glorious gospel of the blessed God has more than equal power over the rocky obduracy and mountainous pride of man. The voice of our dying Lord rent the rocks and opened the graves: his living voice still works the like wonders. Glory be to his name, the hills of our sins leap into his grave, and are buried in the red sea of his blood, when the voice of his intercession is heard.
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn. Not only the trees, but the mountains themselves move as though they frisked and leaped like young bulls or antelopes. As our own poets would mention hills and valleys known to them, so the Psalmist hears the crash and roar among the ranges of Libanus, and depicts the tumult in graphic terms.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
He maketh them also to skip like a calf - That is, the cedars of Lebanon. Compare Psa 114:4, “The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.” Psa 68:16, “why leap ye, ye high hills?” The meaning is plain. The lightning tore off the large branches, and uprooted the loftiest trees, so that they seemed to play and dance like calves in their gambols. Nothing could be more strikingly descriptive of “power.” Lebanon and Sirion - Sirion was the name by which Mount Hermon was known among the Sidonians: Deu 3:9, “Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion.” It is a part of the great range of Anti-libanus. Like a young unicorn - On the meaning of the word used here, see the notes at Psa 22:21. The illustration would be the same if any young wild animal were referred to.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיַּרְקִידֵ֥ם | vaiyarkidem | and he made skip them | H7540 → | 9 times |
| כְּמוֹ־ | kemov- | like | H3644 → | 143 times |
| עֵ֑גֶל | ʾegel | a calf | H5695 → | 35 times |
| לְבָנ֥וֹן | levanon | Lebanon | H3844 → | 71 times |
| וְ֝שִׂרְיֹ֗ן | vesiryon | and Sirion | H8303 → | |
| כְּמ֣וֹ | kemo | like | H3644 → | 143 times |
| בֶן־ | ven- | a young one of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| רְאֵמִֽים׃ | reemim | wild oxen | H7214 → | 9 times |
וַיַּרְקִידֵ֥םand he made skip them
vaiyarkidemH7540 →9 times
כְּמוֹ־like
kemov-H3644 →143 times
עֵ֑גֶלa calf
ʾegelH5695 →35 times
לְבָנ֥וֹןLebanon
levanonH3844 →71 times
וְ֝שִׂרְיֹ֗ןand Sirion
vesiryonH8303 →
כְּמ֣וֹlike
kemoH3644 →143 times
בֶן־a young one of
ven-H1121 →4930 times
רְאֵמִֽים׃wild oxen
reemimH7214 →9 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Revelation 20:11Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them.
it leads to
- Revelation 21:1
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
- 2 Peter 3:7
And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
- Matthew 25:31
When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne.
- Daniel 2:35
Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were shattered and became like chaff on the threshing floor in summer. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found.…
- 2 Peter 3:10–12
But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid…
- Revelation 21:1
Through
Numbers 23:22God brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox.
it leads to
- Numbers 24:8
God brought him out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox, to devour hostile nations and crush their bones, to pierce them with arrows.
- Deuteronomy 33:17
His majesty is like a firstborn bull, and his horns are like those of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even to the ends of the earth. Such are the…
- Numbers 24:8
Through
Deuteronomy 3:9which the Sidonians call Sirion but the Amorites call Senir—
it leads to
- 1 Chronicles 5:23
Now the people of the half-tribe of Manasseh were numerous. They settled in the land from Bashan to Baal-hermon (that is, Senir, also known as Mount Hermon).
- 1 Chronicles 5:23
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Psalms

This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 29; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 11; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 29:6 and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.
