Psalm 19:4
Their Sound Went Out
One letter or one vowelQuoted by the apostles in Romans 10:18, in the older Greek wording
Paul heard the heavens speaking. Your Psalm has them stretching a measuring line.
Side by Side
The Older Text
Septuagint, translated before Messiah
Their voice is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.
The Later Text
Masoretic, finished about 1,000 years after the cross
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
Quoted in Romans 10:18
Paul on the message reaching the world
But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
Your KJV reads: “their line” in the Psalm with the Masoretic, then “their sound” in Romans with the Greek.
See what changed and why ↓What Your Bible Says
But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
Romans 10:18 KJV
Paul is asking whether Israel had any excuse for not hearing the message. His answer comes from Psalm 19: the sound has already gone out to the whole earth. Everyone has heard.
What the Jewish Bible Says
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
Psalm 19:4 KJV
In the later text, the heavens do not send out a sound. They stretch out a line, like a builder’s measuring cord. Paul’s point was about hearing, and a line is not heard.
What Changed
The Hebrew for “their line” is qavvam. The Hebrew for “their voice” is qolam. Written without vowels, they differ by one letter, the letter lamed.
The Greek translators, before Messiah, read “their voice” and wrote the Greek word for a sound or tone. Paul quoted that word. The Masoretic text has the shorter word, “their line.”
The Verse Right Before It
There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
Psalm 19:3 KJV
The word for “their voice” in verse 3 is qolam, the very word the Greek read in verse 4. The Psalm is about speech from first to last: the heavens “declare,” day “uttereth speech,” night “sheweth knowledge.” A voice going out to all the earth fits the song. A measuring line breaks into it.
Which One Is Right?
The Greek Bible reads sound, or voice.
Romans 10:18 reads sound.
The Masoretic text reads line, one letter shorter.
Purpose of the Change
No motive can be proven here; one small letter is missing. The effect is that the heavens stop speaking in verse 4, and Paul seems to quote a sound the later Psalm no longer makes.
The Bottom Line
The Psalm is about a voice that reaches the whole earth, and Paul quoted it that way.
That voice does not fall silent. At the end, the call goes out once more to every ear: “I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (Revelation 14:6).
Dig Deeper The evidence, for anyone who wants it
The One Letter
“Their line” is written קום. “Their voice” is written קולם. Add one lamed and the measuring cord becomes a voice. Drop it and the voice becomes a cord.
Where “Line” Is Used
Elsewhere qav is a builder’s or surveyor’s cord: “And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb” (Jeremiah 31:39). It measures ground. It does not speak.
What Paul Was Proving
Romans 10 is about hearing. “How shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14). Paul uses the heavens as a witness that the sound had already reached everywhere. His argument needs a sound. The Greek gave him one, most likely because the Hebrew in front of the translators had one.
An Honest Note
Some scholars defend “line” as the heavens’ measuring cord, marking out their reach over the whole earth. The meaning ends up close either way: the heavens’ witness covers the world. This is a one-letter difference, not proof that anyone changed the Psalm on purpose. The point is only that Paul’s word came from a real Hebrew reading, older than the Masoretic text, and it fits the verse before it.