Psalm 8:8

Psalm 8:8

The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

a. NLT: The birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents. [Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.]

b. NIV: The birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. [THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.]

c. YLT: Bird of the heavens, and fish of the sea, Passing through the paths of the seas! [The Young's Literal Translation was translated by Robert Young, who believed in a strictly literal translation of God's word. This version of the Bible is in the public domain.]

d. Amplified Bible Classic: The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes along the paths of the seas. [Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation]

e. Septuagint: the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea, the [creatures] passing through the paths of the sea.

f. Stone Edition Torah/Writings/Prophets [Psalm 8:8 in our Bibles is Psalm 8:9 in the Jewish text]: The birds of the sky and the fish of the sea; for [man] even traverses the lanes of the sea. [The Artscroll Series/Stone Edition, THE TANACH--STUDENT SIZE EDITION Copyright 1996, 1998 by Mesorah Publications, Ltd.]

1. “The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea…”

a. The fowl [Strong: 6833 * tsippowr tsip-pore' or tsippor {tsip-pore'}; from 6852; a little bird (as hopping):--bird, fowl, sparrow.]

b. of the air [Strong: 8064 * shamayim shaw-mah'-yim dual of an unused singular shameh {shaw-meh'}; from an unused root meaning to be lofty; the sky (as aloft; the dual perhaps alluding to the visible arch in which the clouds move, as well as to the higher ether where the celestial bodies revolve):--air, X astrologer, heaven(-s).]

c. and the fish [Strong: 1709 * dag dawg or (fully) dag (Nehemiah 13:16) {dawg}; from 1711; a fish (as prolific); or perhaps rather from 1672 (as timid); but still better from 1672 (in the sense of squirming, i.e. moving by the vibratory action of the tail); a fish (often used collectively):--fish.]

e. of the sea [Strong: 3220 * yam yawm from an unused root meaning to roar; a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water; specifically (with the article), the Mediterranean Sea; sometimes a large river, or an artifical basin; locally, the west, or (rarely) the south:--sea (X -faring man, (-shore)), south, west (-ern, side, -ward).]

2. “…and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.”

a. and whatsoever passeth through [Strong: 5674 * `abar aw-bar' a primitive root; to cross over; used very widely of any transition (literal or figurative; transitive, intransitive, intensive, causative); specifically, to cover (in copulation):--alienate, alter, X at all, beyond, bring (over, through), carry over, (over-)come (on, over), conduct (over), convey over, current, deliver, do away, enter, escape, fail, gender, get over, (make) go (away, beyond, by, forth, his way, in, on, over, through), have away (more), lay, meddle, overrun, make partition, (cause to, give, make to, over) pass(-age, along, away, beyond, by, -enger, on, out, over, through), (cause to, make) + proclaim(-amation), perish, provoke to anger, put away, rage, + raiser of taxes, remove, send over, set apart, + shave, cause to (make) sound, X speedily, X sweet smelling, take (away), (make to) transgress(-or), translate, turn away, (way-)faring man, be wrath.]

b. the paths [Strong: 734 * 'orach o'-rakh from 732; a well-trodden road (literally or figuratively); also a caravan:--manner, path, race, rank, traveller, troop, (by-, high-)way.]

c. of the seas [Strong: 3220 * yam yawm from an unused root meaning to roar; a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water; specifically (with the article), the Mediterranean Sea; sometimes a large river, or an artifical basin; locally, the west, or (rarely) the south:--sea (X -faring man, (-shore)), south, west (-ern, side, -ward).]

1). The following two articles are from Creationists ministries, Institute of Creation Research and Answer’s in Genesis.

a). Paths Of The Seas, by Duane Gish, Ph.D. “Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee” (Job 12:8). Matthew Maury served as a U.S. naval officer before suffering an injury which forced his retirement. He was then placed in charge of the Depot of Charts and Instruments of the Hydrographic Office of the Navy from 1841 to 1861. He was a Christian who loved the Word of God. One day, while reading Psalm 8, he was struck by an important truth in the 8th verse. There he read that God had given man dominion over “the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.” He immediately saw the great practical significance of that verse, recognizing that there must be currents of water in the oceans, just like vast rivers, as well as in the atmosphere (Ecclesiastes 1:6). With confidence in the accuracy of the Bible, Maury determined to discover the paths in the seas and the wind circuits, utilizing the charts and log books he had at his disposal. He did discover and plot many of the wind circuits and currents, such as the great Gulf Current, 40 miles wide and 2,000 feet deep that comes out of the Gulf of Mexico into the Atlantic; the Japanese Current, the California Current, and others. Utilizing this information, the sailing ships of his day plied these currents and wind circuits, reducing by as much as three weeks the time required to cross the oceans. On a monument erected by the state of Virginia to his memory is found a plaque that reads as follows: “Matthew Fontaine Maury, Pathfinder of the Seas, the genius who first snatched from the oceans and atmosphere the secret of their laws. His inspiration, Holy Writ, Psalm 8:8; Ecclesiastes 1:6.” A genius? No. Just a simple Bible-believing Christian who trusted the inerrancy of the Word of God. DTG http://www.icr.org/article/20022/ 

b). b). [Answers in Genesis] It is often claimed that the Bible is not a scientific textbook. Yet the Bible’s accuracy when touching on scientific subjects has led many great scientists…to some outstanding scientific discoveries.  Matthew Maury’s search for the secret of the seas His faith in the Bible led him to some great scientific discoveries. First published: Creation 11(3):30 June 1989. 1). American naval officer and oceanographer Matthew Maury (1806-1873) was a Christian who loved reading his Bible. He also had no doubts about its accuracy. And these facts led him to some remarkable discoveries in science. Maury entered the US Navy in 1825, but an accident in 1839 partially disabled him, so he left active sea duty. Three years later, still with the Navy, he was appointed superintendent of the US Naval Observatory in Washington, and also of the US Depot of Charts and Instruments. Over the next 19 years Maury devoted himself to studying the winds, clouds, weather, and ocean features ... as well as the Bible. In his Bible studies, the words of Psalm 8 stuck in his mind: ‘ ... whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas’. Maury determined that if God’s Word said there were ‘paths’ in the seas, then there must be paths. So he set out to find them. He studied old ships’ logs. From these he compiled charts of ocean-wind and sea currents. To study the speed and direction of the ocean currents Maury set adrift weighted bottles known as ‘drift bottles’. These floated slightly below the surface of the water, and thus were not affected by wind. Instructions were sealed in each bottle directing anyone who found one washed ashore to return it. From the location and date on which the bottles were found, Maury was able to develop his charts of the ocean currents—the ‘paths’ of the seas—which greatly aided the science of marine navigation. In 1855, Maury wrote the first textbook on modern oceanography, The Physical Geography of the Sea and Its Meteorology. In this work, Maury presented oceanography from a delightfully Christian view. He included Biblical passages of meteorological and other scientific importance, such as the Scripture quote from the book of Job 28:25 which refers to God’s making ‘the weight for the winds’. He explained the Biblical statement this way: ‘. . though the fact that the air has weight is here so distantly announced [in Job], philosophers never recognized the fact until within comparatively a recent period, and then it was proclaimed by them as a great discovery. Nevertheless, the fact was set forth as distinctly in the book of nature as it is in the book of revelation; for the infant, in availing itself of atmospherical pressure to draw milk from its mother’s breast, unconsciously proclaimed it.’ Maury subsequently prepared charts of the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Europe, which showed the practicability of laying undersea cables. Maury died in 1873. He was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. A monument erected in his honour on Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, reads: “Matthew Fontaine Maury, Pathfinder of the Seas, the genius who first snatched from the oceans and atmosp