What Does Psalm 103:9 Mean in the King James?
He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
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 separates God’s contention from a grievance kept forever.
THE MEANING
God does not contend without end, and anger is not preserved forever. You can meet correction without mistaking it for a permanent grievance held over you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s anger toward you is endless, even as the verse acknowledges that his anger is real.
THE ROOT
יִטּוֹר
yittor
GROWS FROM
נטר
n-t-r
To keep, guard, or preserve.
English’s “keep” can sound like neutral storage, but this Hebrew verb also appears for bearing a grudge. The verse speaks of anger not being held and carried forward forever.
ALSO GROWS
natarti: I kept or tended.
נָטַרְתִּי
This branch shows the root’s ordinary sense of keeping something in one’s care.
tittor: Bear or hold a grudge.
תִטֹּר
The same root can describe kept resentment, sharpening “keep his anger” into more than an emotion passing through.
יָרִיב
yariv
GROWS FROM
ריב
r-y-b
To contend, dispute, or plead a case.
The root behind “chide” carries contention and pleading a case, more than a passing scold. Paired with the separate root behind “keep,” it distinguishes confrontation from preserved resentment, and says both have an end.
ALSO GROWS
riv: A dispute or contention.
רִיב
This noun makes visible the conflict carried inside the verb translated “chide.”
merivah: A quarrel or strife.
מְרִיבָה
This branch shows the root’s reach from one act of contending to an ongoing conflict.
THE PATTERN
Anger can be real and still be bounded; it is not carried forward without end.
For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:THE THREAD
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.The Hebrew verb behind “keep” belongs to the same root as Leviticus’s “bear any grudge.” That shared root makes the second half precise: anger can be carried forward as a grievance, but here it is not retained forever.
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