What Does Psalm 102:14 Mean in the King James?
For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.
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
The verse calls even Zion’s dust worthy of favor, so ruin does not cancel belonging.
THE MEANING
The servants cherish Zion’s stones and look with favor on her dust. That tenderness reaches the reader in what is cracked or fallen: even the smallest remains are still worthy of care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that what has crumbled has lost its worth.
THE ROOT
יְחֹנֵנוּ
yeḥōnēnū
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥanan; to show favor, to be gracious.
“favour” in this verse is yeḥōnēnū. This verb belongs to the same family as words for graciousness and a plea for favor. The servants’ regard reaches even the dust: tenderness is directed toward what seems least worthy of preserving.
ALSO GROWS
ḥannûn: gracious
חָנּוּן
This form names graciousness as a quality, opening the verse’s act of favor into a way of relating.
teḥinnāh: supplication, a plea for favor
תְּחִנָּה
The word for a plea and the word for favor share this root, linking the reaching for mercy with the response of gracious regard.
אֲבָנֶיהָ
ʾăvānêhā
GROWS FROM
אבן
ʾeven; stone.
The verse gives attention to the stones and the dust alike: what remains and what has crumbled are both held within its tenderness. The consonants also invite the father-and-son wordplay in which a stone holds both generations in one sign of what remains.
ALSO GROWS
ʾăvānîm: stones
אֲבָנִים
This plural form carries the same root into the many stones the servants cherish.
bēn: son
בֵּן
It shares the consonants ב־נ with אבן and supports the wordplay of father and son held within the image of a stone.
THE PATTERN
What is broken or despised remains worthy of gathering, rebuilding, and care.
The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:THE THREAD
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.The Hebrew root חנן (ḥanan, to show favor or be gracious) underlies “be gracious” there and “favour” here. The shared root reveals favor as gracious regard directed toward its object, whether a person or even dust.
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