What Does James 5:13 Mean in the King James?
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
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
In the Greek, gladness does not stay an inward mood: the verb for singing still carries the image of plucking a string.
THE MEANING
When hardship is present, the verse gives it prayer as its voice; when gladness is present, it gives it song. Neither experience has to be erased to make room for the other: each can be expressed before God now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that distress belongs in prayer while joy is too ordinary or self-contained to become praise.
THE ROOT
ψαλλέτω
psalletō
GROWS FROM
ψάλλω
psallō
To pluck a string; by extension, to play or sing praise.
“sing psalms” in this verse is psalletō. The verb’s older concrete sense is plucking a string; from that action it names playing and singing praise. Gladness here becomes audible, not just felt.
ALSO GROWS
psalmos: A psalm or song of praise.
ψαλμός
The noun names the song that grows from the same family as the string-plucking verb.
psaltērion: A stringed instrument, or psaltery.
ψαλτήριον
This branch preserves the instrument image carried inside the verb translated “sing psalms.”
εὐθυμεῖ
euthymei
GROWS FROM
θυμός
thymos
Inner force, passion, heat; in some contexts, anger.
The word translated “merry” belongs to a family whose noun θυμός (thymos) can mean anger, heat, or passion; the source word here means to be in good cheer. The verse places this inner force on the side of gladness, then lets it become song.
ALSO GROWS
thymos: Anger, heat, or passionate force.
θυμός
This related word names the intensity also present in the family behind “merry.”
euthymia: Good cheer or courage.
εὐθυμία
This noun uses the same word family for a state of good cheer, showing that “merry” can name an inward stance, not only a passing mood.
euthymos: Cheerful, in good spirits.
εὔθυμος
This related adjective shows the same family describing a person marked by good cheer.
κακοπαθεῖ
kakopathei
GROWS FROM
πάσχω
paschō
To undergo, experience, or suffer; in κακοπαθέω, to undergo hardship.
“afflicted” in this verse is kakopathei. The Greek verb names the experience of undergoing hardship, not simply a label someone wears. James meets that present experience with prayer; the same root family can also name suffering shared with another.
ALSO GROWS
pathēma: A suffering, or something undergone.
πάθημα
This noun keeps the focus on what is being experienced, the condition prayer meets in the verse.
sympaschō: To suffer with, to share another’s suffering.
συμπάσχω
This branch shows that suffering can be shared; it need not define an isolated self.
THE PATTERN
Whatever condition is present receives a fitting expression toward God: distress becomes prayer, and gladness becomes song.
And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.THE THREAD
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;James’s “sing psalms” and Ephesians’ “making melody” translate forms of ψάλλω (psallō), meaning to pluck a string or sing praise. The shared root opens James’s gladness into a song that gives the inward state an audible form.
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