What Does Psalm 102:26 Mean in the King James?
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
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 world does not endure by staying unchanged: it is a garment the One who endures can exchange.
THE MEANING
What surrounds you can wear thin, change form, and pass away, while the One addressed here remains standing. The verse holds change and endurance together: creation may be changed without the source of its life disappearing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that when the familiar world changes or wears out, everything is ending alike: the garment changes, but the One who changes it remains.
THE ROOT
תַּחֲלִיפֵם
taḥalifēm
GROWS FROM
חלף
ḥ-l-p
To pass on, change, exchange, or renew.
The word translated “change” belongs to a root that also means to exchange and renew. The image is more than an ending: what wears out can be replaced, as a garment is exchanged and strength can be renewed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥalifot: Changes or exchanges of garments.
חֲלִיפוֹת
The same root appears with literal clothing, making the verse’s garment image part of the root’s own word family.
yaḥalifu: Renew, as in the renewal of strength.
יַחֲלִיפוּ
The root can describe renewal as well as replacement: what changes is not only lost, but may give way to something renewed.
תַעֲמֹד
taʿamod
GROWS FROM
עמד
ʿ-m-d
To stand, remain, or hold one’s position.
The English “endure” carries the concrete image of standing. While the created order wears out and is exchanged, the One addressed remains in place; permanence is pictured as standing through change.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmad: To stand or take one’s position.
עָמַד
This is the root verb behind “endure”: the verse pictures endurance as standing while the garment changes.
laʿamod: To stand or continue in place.
לַעֲמֹד
The sense of continuing comes through a posture of standing, sharpening the contrast with what passes away.
THE PATTERN
What belongs to creation can wear out and change, while the LORD’s presence and faithful love remain.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.THE THREAD
And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.This verse repeats the garment image and makes the other half of the contrast explicit: “thou art the same.” The garment’s change and the LORD’s endurance are paired parts of one claim.
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