What Does Psalm 106:14 Mean in the King James?
But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.
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 says they “craved a craving,” making desire itself, not only its object, the thing that has taken hold.
THE MEANING
Craving can intensify until the desire itself becomes what you seek. In that narrowed state, the verse names a test of whether God will answer on the terms appetite sets.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Intensity of craving is not proof that what you want is what you need; the verse connects extravagant desire with testing God.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְאַוּוּ תַאֲוָה
vayyit’avvu ta’avah
GROWS FROM
אָוָה
ʾ-w-h
To desire or long for.
“lusted exceedingly” in this verse is vayyit’avvu ta’avah. The Hebrew pairs a verb meaning “they craved” with the noun “craving,” repeating the same root. English renders the intensity, while the doubled root lets you hear desire turning back on itself: they “craved a craving.”
ALSO GROWS
ta’avah: Desire, longing, or craving.
תַּאֲוָה
This noun is the second half of the verse’s repeated root, making the craving itself explicit.
hit’avvu: They desired or craved.
הִתְאַוּוּ
This related verb appears with the same root in Numbers 11:4, where the people’s craving is also tied to asking for food.
וַיְנַסּוּ
vayenasu
GROWS FROM
נסה
n-s-h
To test or put to proof.
The word translated “tempted” carries the sense of putting God to the test. The verse places this testing beside an intensified craving, so the appetite becomes a demand against which divine care is measured.
ALSO GROWS
nissah: He tested or proved.
נִסָּה
This verbal form belongs to the same root as the verse’s “they tested,” clarifying the action as putting something to proof.
Massah: Testing or proving; also the name of a place associated with testing.
מַסָּה
The related noun preserves the test as a named pattern, linking a demand for proof with the wilderness.
THE PATTERN
In the wilderness, unbounded craving turns dependence into a test of whether God will meet appetite’s demand.
And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.THE THREAD
And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.It uses the same Hebrew root נסה (nasah, to test or put to proof) for “tempted,” and makes the craving’s object explicit: meat sought to satisfy appetite. It shows how desire becomes a test when the demand rises from within the heart.
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