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Greetings and welcome to Words of Wisdom!

This website is livicated to matching Reggae song lyrics to Biblical quotations. Give thanks for visiting.
May JAH guide thy coming in and protect thy going out
- Deuteronomy 28:6, Psalm 121:8

since Aug 2010.

Many reggae songs - especially those inspired by Rastafari - contain biblical quotations, references, and allusions. Sometimes these are quite obvious, taken as direct quotes from scripture, but in other cases they may be adapted to fit a rhythm or rhyme, and will therefore be less easy to pin-point.



Biblical quotes in reggae lyrics are usually taken from the
King James Version (abbreviated to KJV) of the Bible, also known as the
Authorized Version (AV). This was published in 1611, which accounts for the old style of English. The KJV is still perhaps the most widely known and best loved version of the Bible in English today.


Click the picture for more general information about the Bible

Quotations in reggae lyrics are frequently adapted from the original Biblical text to include Rastafarian terminology. See the Key Ideas section of this website for plenty of examples.



Reggae lyrics did not always contain Biblical quotations. Probably these were first introduced when Rastafarian musicians appeared on the reggae scene. Since this time, reggae music has become almost inseparably associated with Rasta culture, not least because some of its best known exponents were Rastafarians. The closely related Nyabinghi chants are similarly often inspired by the Psalms.



As a slight aside from the main biblical theme, I've also devoted part of this site to the occurence of Amharic lyrics in Reggae songs. Amharic is the national language of Ethiopia, and is therefore very important to Rastafarians. Please see the Amharic section for further information, translations and reggae lyrics featuring Amharic words and phrases.



As mentioned above, I've also included a selection of articles about key concepts (both biblical and extra-biblical) featured in Rasta reggae lyrics, as well as brief commentary where appropriate on some of the most frequently occurring biblical quotations.



Personally, I love reading the Bible. Sometimes quite by chance I will come across a scripture that I recognise from a Reggae song, and think, 'Aha! So that's where it comes from'. Most of the time, however, I use the Bible Gateway website to help find quotations and references. This site is a powerful Bible-study tool, where you can both look up particular references and also search for words or phrases. It has translations of the Bible in numerous different languages and versions.



Words of Wisdom was originally the so-called 'Bible Section' of the Reggae Lyrics Archive but has expanded to the extent that it is now a homepage in its own right.



The title 'Words Of Wisdom' is derived from the song of the same name by Dennis Brown. However, the phrase 'words of wisdom' is not actually a direct bibilcal quotation in the KJV, though most people would agree that the Bible contains many words of wisdom.

Click here for a list of all the artists/groups whose lyrics are featured on this site.


I hope you will find this site useful and informative, whether your interest is from the angle of reggae, Rasta, the Bible, languages, or any other.


Please feel free to send any comments, suggestions, or corrections to me, Lois. Many thanks :-)



One Love!













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