What Does Psalm 102:24 Mean in the King James?

I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.

Psalm 102:24 · KJV

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 Hebrew verb behind “take me away” pictures being brought up, setting a vulnerable human lifespan beside God’s years across generations.

THE MEANING

You can feel your days as incomplete, and the plea gives that fear words without concealing it. God’s years stretch across generation after generation, while your life remains vulnerable within that span.

THE ROOT

תַּעֲלֵנִי

taʿalēnî

GROWS FROM

עלה

⁨עלה⁩ (ʿālāh): ascend, go up; in this form, bring up.

English “take me away” sounds like removal, while ⁨תַּעֲלֵנִי⁩ (taʿalēnî, bring me up) carries the root’s upward movement. The speaker names the feared interruption of his days before setting them against God’s years across generations.

ALSO GROWS

ʿālāh: to go up, ascend

עָלָה

This basic verb preserves the upward movement within the plea to not be taken away.

ʿōlāh: burnt offering, ascent offering

עֹלָה

This offering’s name comes from the same root, as something that rises; the same upward image is present beneath “take me away.”

maʿăleh: ascent, uphill path

מַעֲלֶה

This word makes the root’s sense of an upward course concrete, echoing the movement in the speaker’s plea.

שְׁנוֹתֶיךָ

shenōteḵā

GROWS FROM

שנה

⁨שנה⁩ (shanah): repeat or do again; ⁨שָׁנָה⁩ (shanah) means year, a recurring cycle.

The verse places the speaker’s days beside years that continue through every generation. The Hebrew word for “years” carries a link to recurrence, giving God’s span the feel of cycles continuing beyond one human life.

ALSO GROWS

shanah: year

שָׁנָה

This is the singular noun behind ⁨שְׁנוֹתֶיךָ⁩, “your years,” and names the recurring measure set against the speaker’s days.

shinnāh: to repeat, do again

שִׁנָּה

This verb shares the root’s consonants and makes the recurring sense audible beside the years that span generation after generation.

THE PATTERN

Human time can be cut short, while God’s years span every generation.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Psalm 90:2 · KJVGod’s existence stretches beyond the formation of the world, placing human days inside a span they cannot measure.

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

Isaiah 40:28 · KJVGod does not grow weary or run out of time, even as human strength and days are limited.

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

James 4:14 · KJVThe verse names the brevity of human life that makes the plea not to be taken away in midlife so immediate.

THE THREAD

But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.

Psalm 102:27 · KJV

The same Hebrew noun ⁨שָׁנָה⁩ (shanah, year) sits behind “thy years” here and in the connected verse. Verse 24 sets the speaker’s days beside God’s years; verse 27 carries the thought forward by saying those years have no end.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us