What Does 1 Kings 8:50 Mean?
and release your people who have missed the mark against you, and all their rebellions in which they have broken away from you, and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, so that they may have compassion on them.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:THE KEY
The prayer asks for wrongdoing to be released and compassion to cross the line between captive and captor.
THE MEANING
The verse names what the reader misses and where they break away, then places both within a request for release. It also asks that compassion arise in those who hold power over the reader, allowing tenderness to cross the boundary of captivity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wrongdoing makes someone permanently undeserving of compassion, or that tenderness can come only from those already close.
THE ROOT
רַחֲמִים
rachamim
GROWS FROM
רחם
racham
Womb; to show tender, protective compassion.
Rachamim carries the bodily image of the womb: compassion is tenderness that holds and protects life. The prayer asks for that regard to arise even among the people holding the captives.
ALSO GROWS
rechem: womb
רֶחֶם
It reveals the bodily image carried within the word for compassion.
rachum: compassionate, merciful
רַחוּם
The same root names the quality the prayer asks to reach the captives.
חָטְאוּ
chat'u
GROWS FROM
חטא
chata
To miss or go wrong; to miss the mark.
“missed the mark” in this verse is chat'u. The Hebrew word rendered “sinned” carries the image of missing. Set beside “transgressions,” it lets the verse name both failure and rebellion without making either the whole identity of the people.
ALSO GROWS
chet: missing, missing the mark
חֵטְא
It gives the verse’s wrongdoing the concrete sense of a miss.
chatta't: offering for the missing
חַטָּאת
This related form shows the same root can name a response to what has gone wrong.
פִּשְׁעֵיהֶם
pish'eihem
GROWS FROM
פשע
pasha
To rebel or break away.
“rebellions” in this verse is pish'eihem. The verse pairs missing with rebellion: one word names a failure, while this root carries the force of breaking away. The request for release holds even deliberate rupture within reach of compassion.
ALSO GROWS
pesha: rebellion, breaking away
פֶּשַׁע
It names the rupture the verse asks to have released.
poshea: one who rebels
פּוֹשֵׁעַ
It shows the same root can describe the person associated with the rebellion, not only the act.
THE PATTERN
Compassion can cross a boundary of power, reaching those held captive and those who hold them.
He gave them compassions before all those who took them captive.Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she would not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even they may forget, but I will not forget you.Become therefore compassionate, as your Father is compassionate.THE THREAD
Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she would not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even they may forget, but I will not forget you.The word translated “compassion” in both verses comes from the root רחם (racham), linked with רֶחֶם (rechem), “womb.” Isaiah makes visible the intimate, protective tenderness already carried within the prayer for compassion to reach across captivity.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us