What Does 2 Samuel 22:37 Mean in the King James?
Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet did not slip.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Your balance is not secured by shrinking your step, but by widening the ground beneath it.
THE MEANING
Your way has room beneath it; each step can widen without becoming unstable. The verse locates steadiness in the space opened under your movement, where your feet hold instead of slipping.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that the safest way forward is to make yourself smaller and move less. Here, the step gains room, and that room is what keeps it from slipping.
THE ROOT
תַּרְחִיב
tarḥiv
GROWS FROM
רָחַב
r-ḥ-b
To widen, broaden, or make spacious.
“enlarged” in this verse is tarḥiv. The Hebrew root רָחַב (rachav, to widen) points to breadth and room, beyond an increase in size. Its branches רְחוֹב (reḥov, broad street) and מֶרְחָב (merḥav, open space) reveal the verse’s image: steadiness comes as space opens beneath your stride.
ALSO GROWS
merḥav: Broad place, open space.
מֶרְחָב
This branch makes the widening concrete: the step has room beneath it to land.
reḥov: Broad street or plaza.
רְחוֹב
The same root names an opened area to move through, giving the verse’s widened steps a sense of spacious passage.
THE PATTERN
Steady movement emerges as space opens beneath the feet, within the heart, and between people.
Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.THE THREAD
I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.The same Hebrew root רָחַב (rachav, to widen) appears in “enlarge my heart.” Here the space opens beneath the feet; there it opens within the heart, linking secure footing with an inward capacity to move.
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