What Does 2 Samuel 22:7 Mean in the King James?
In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.
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
Distress is a narrowing, but the cry still reaches God’s hearing from within it.
THE MEANING
When you are pressed into a narrow place, your voice still reaches God; the verse gives that cry a destination in God’s own dwelling. Your distress does not make you inaudible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that distress puts your voice beyond God’s reach.
THE ROOT
בַּצַּר
ba-tsar
GROWS FROM
צרר
To press, bind, or make narrow.
The phrase begins in tsar, “narrowness,” the same constricting image carried by Mitzrayim. English “distress” can sound like a state with no direction; here, a voice rises from within that narrowing and reaches God’s hearing.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight, constricted.
צַר
This is the narrowness within the speaker’s distress.
tsarah: Distress, trouble, adversity.
צָרָה
This branch names the trouble as a constricted place, not an unreachable one.
וַיִּשְׁמַע
wayyishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or heed.
“hear” in this verse is wayyishmaʿ. The root can carry attentive listening, beyond sound merely reaching an ear. Your cry is received as a voice, and the verse locates that hearing in God’s own dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear, listen, attend.
שְׁמַע
It shows the attentive sense carried by the verb translated “hear.”
shemuah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps hearing connected to receiving what is spoken.
THE PATTERN
A cry raised from trouble reaches God and is heard.
The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God.THE THREAD
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.Psalm 118:5 repeats the צַר (tsar, “narrowness”) root and makes the movement explicit: the LORD answers and brings the speaker into a wide place. It opens this verse as the first moment in that movement, the cry is already heard at the edge of constriction.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us