What Does Psalm 106:46 Mean in the King James?
He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.
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 says captivity cannot keep compassion from crossing the line between captive and captor.
THE MEANING
Even when you are held inside a situation you cannot undo, compassion is not locked outside it: the LORD can turn the gaze of people with power over you toward mercy. Someone who seems able only to confine you can become a witness to your vulnerability.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that power over you makes compassion impossible.
THE ROOT
לְרַחֲמִים
le-raḥamim
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ם
R-Ḥ-M
To show tender compassion.
The word rendered “pitied” means “to compassion”: the verse says God gives the captives into compassion before their captors. The same word family includes רֶחֶם (reḥem), “womb,” linking compassion with the tenderness that holds vulnerable life.
ALSO GROWS
reḥem: Womb
רֶחֶם
The shared root joins compassion with a place where vulnerable life is held and protected.
riḥēm: To show compassion
רִחֵם
This verb names the compassionate response the verse says appears before the captors.
raḥum: Compassionate
רַחוּם
This form describes compassion as a quality, showing the root can name both the response and the character behind it.
וַיִּתֵּן
wayyitten
GROWS FROM
נ־ת־ן
N-T-N
To give, set, or place.
The Hebrew verb says God “gave” them to compassion, which the KJV renders “made them … to be pitied.” The wording presents compassion as something placed into the captives’ relationship with their captors.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place
נָתַן
This is the verb behind “made,” making the act one of giving the captives into compassion.
mattanah: Gift
מַתָּנָה
This related word carries the same root of giving, illuminating compassion as something granted rather than possessed by the captors alone.
THE PATTERN
The LORD can place compassion where power might otherwise keep the vulnerable at a distance.
And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.THE THREAD
That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.“Have compassion” there comes from the same ר־ח־ם root as “pitied” here. Psalm 106:46 shows compassion reaching the captors’ gaze; Deuteronomy 30:3 joins that same compassion to the gathering of the scattered.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us