What Does Psalm 103:3 Mean in the King James?
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
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 holds release from inward crookedness and healing of the body together as two expressions of one care.
THE MEANING
The one who releases all your crookedness also heals all your diseases. Inward burden and bodily illness are held together within the same care, neither beyond its reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the burden within you and the illness in your body must be beyond the same care.
THE ROOT
הַסֹּלֵחַ
ha-sōlēaḥ
GROWS FROM
סלח
to pardon, to forgive
“forgiveth” in this verse is ha-sōlēaḥ. The Hebrew word names the one who pardons, while the verse makes the scope explicit: all your iniquities. Forgiveness here is release from the inward burden, paired with healing rather than separated from it.
ALSO GROWS
seliḥah: forgiveness, pardon
סְלִיחָה
This noun gives the act a name: the burden of iniquity can be released.
sallaḥ: forgiving, ready to pardon
סַלָּח
This adjective describes the pardoning one, keeping the focus on a nature of forgiveness.
הָרֹפֵא
hā-rōfēʾ
GROWS FROM
רפא
to heal, restore health
“healeth” in this verse is hā-rōfēʾ. The root רפא (rapha, heal) reaches beyond this verse’s diseases: it can describe a healer and healing itself. Set beside forgiveness, it shows care meeting both the inward burden and the body’s sickness.
ALSO GROWS
refuʾah: healing, cure
רְפוּאָה
The same root names healing itself, making clear that the verse speaks of restoration, not only a healer’s identity.
rofēʾ: healer
רֹפֵא
This branch names the one who heals, echoing the verse’s picture of healing as an active expression of care.
THE PATTERN
One care reaches both bodily illness and the inward burdens that leave a person broken or turned aside.
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?THE THREAD
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.The Hebrew root רפא (rapha, heal) appears in both verses. Psalm 147:3 carries its healing from bodily disease into the broken heart and its wounds, showing the reach of the same root across body and inward life.
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