Psalms 104:28

Translations

King James Version (KJV)

That you give them they gather: you open your hand, they are filled with good.

American King James Version (AKJV)

That you give them they gather: you open your hand, they are filled with good.

American Standard Version (ASV)

Thou givest unto them, they gather; Thou openest thy hand, they are satisfied with good.

Basic English Translation (BBE)

They take what you give them; they are full of the good things which come from your open hand.

Webster's Revision

That which thou givest them, they gather: thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good.

World English Bible

You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.

English Revised Version (ERV)

That thou givest unto them they gather; thou openest thine hand, they are satisfied with good.

Clarke's Psalms 104:28 Bible Commentary

That thou givest them they gather - All creatures are formed with such and such digestive organs, and the food proper for them is provided. Infinitely varied as are living creatures in their habits and internal economy, so are the aliments which God has caused the air, the earth, and the waters to produce.

Thou openest thine hand - An allusion to the act of scattering grain among fowls.

Barnes's Psalms 104:28 Bible Commentary

That thou givest them they gather - What thou dost place before them they collect. They have no resources of their own. They can invent nothing; they cannot vary their food by art, as man does; they cannot make use of reason, as man does, or of skill, in preparing it, to suit and pamper the appetite. It comes prepared for them direct from the hand of God.

Thou openest thine hand - As one does who bestows a gift on another. The point in the passage is, that they receive it immediately from God, and that they are wholly dependent on him for it. They have not to labor to prepare it, but it is made ready for them, and they have only to gather it up. The allusion in the "language" may be to the gathering of manna in the wilderness, when it was provided by God, and people had only to collect it for their use. So it is with the brute creation on land and in the waters.

They are filled with good - They are "satiated" with good; that is, They are satisfied with what to them is good, or with what supplies their needs.