Psalm 110 · a question people ask

"Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth" (110:3). What does that mean?

In the text

The verse reads, "Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth" (110:3). Its Hebrew is short and hard, and each word can be looked up. Offer themselves willingly is nedavot, the plural of a word Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "voluntariness, freewill offering" (tap offer themselves willingly). Morning is mishchar, which the Hebrew Bible has only here; Brown-Driver-Briggs gives it as "dawn" (tap morning). Dew is tal, Brown-Driver-Briggs "night-mist, dew" (tap dew). Youth is yaldut, Brown-Driver-Briggs "childhood, youth", which the Hebrew Bible has three times, here and twice in Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 11:9, 11:10). The psalm doesn't explain how the pictures of 110:3 fit together, and the New Testament verses these notes cite don't quote it. These notes don't explain it either.

The verses

“Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.”
Psalm 110:3 · World English Bible
“Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.”
Ecclesiastes 11:9-10 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 110

Psalm 110: The LORD says to my Lord

"The LORD says to my Lord" (110:1) uses two different Hebrew words: the divine name, and adoni, a word the Psalms use of the LORD and of a king. The oath "You are a priest forever" (110:4) opens with the same two Hebrew words as the LORD's oath to David in Psalm 132:11. And Jesus used 110:1 to ask how David's son could be David's Lord (Mark 12:37).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions