What Does Acts 2:34 Mean?
For David did not go up into the heavens, but he himself says, The LORD said to my Lord, Settle at my right hand.
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
For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,THE KEY
Greek calls both the speaker and the one David addresses κύριος (kýrios, “lord”), while their roles in the sentence distinguish them.
THE MEANING
The verse lets you hear David say that he has not ascended, yet names another as “my Lord,” seated at God’s right hand by the LORD’s word. Authority here appears as a relation and a given seat; David’s voice bears witness to it without claiming it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the assumption that David’s stature makes him the highest authority here: he himself calls another “my Lord.”
THE ROOT
κυρίῳ
kyríō
GROWS FROM
κυρ-
κυρ- (kyr-) belongs to the word family associated with κύρος (kýros), authority or validity.
The Greek uses κύριος (kýrios, “lord”) for both “The LORD” and “my Lord”; the first speaks, and the second is addressed. The wording places authority in their relation and in the seat the LORD names, while David is the voice reporting it.
ALSO GROWS
kýrios: One who holds authority; a lord or master.
κύριος
This title appears for both figures in the Greek sentence, so who speaks and who is addressed carries the distinction.
kyrieúō: To rule or hold authority over.
κυριεύω
This verb makes explicit the ruling force within the word family; here the repeated title stands in a scene of speech and enthronement.
ἀνέβη
anébē
GROWS FROM
βαίνω
βαίνω (baínō) means to go or step.
“went up” in this verse is anébē. The compound verb marks upward movement, and the verse denies that movement to David. The line then shifts from going up to a seat named by the LORD’s speech.
ALSO GROWS
anabaínō: To go or come upward.
ἀναβαίνω
This related verb makes the upward direction in David’s denied ascent explicit.
katabaínō: To go or come downward.
καταβαίνω
The same base describes movement in the opposite direction, showing that the root itself is going or stepping; the compound supplies the direction.
דָּוִד
Dāwīd
GROWS FROM
דּוֹד
דּוֹד (dōd) carries the sense of beloved or beloved one; David’s name shares these consonants.
David’s name carries the seed of belovedness. In this verse, the beloved king’s own speech remains relational: he calls another “my Lord,” so belovedness does not make him the highest authority in the line.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: A beloved person.
דּוֹד
The name’s root points toward relationship and affection as David speaks of the one he calls his Lord.
dōdîm: Affections or expressions of love; used for “loves” in Song of Solomon 1:2.
דּוֹדִים
This related form carries the same seed of belovedness, deepening the relational note within David’s name.
THE PATTERN
The seat at God’s right hand marks authority as a granted place of nearness, and the passage’s language extends that seated belonging to those joined with Christ.
A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet.Who, being the radiance of his weight and the exact stamp of his foundation, carrying all things by the word of his power, when he had made the cleansing of shortcomings, sat down at the right hand of the Greatness on high.And he raised us up together and seated us together in the places of the heavens, in the Anointed One, Jesus.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet.This is the line Acts is quoting: the LORD speaks to the one David calls “my Lord” and names the right-hand seat. In Hebrew, the titles are YHWH (יהוה, YHWH, the LORD) and adoni (אֲדֹנִי, ʾadōnî, “my lord”); Acts’ Greek uses κύριος (kýrios, “lord”) for each, so their roles in the sentence carry the distinction.
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