What Does Psalm 107:20 Mean in the King James?
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
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 sent word heals by carrying a person out of what is destroying them.
THE MEANING
The word reaches you where destruction has taken hold, bringing healing and a way out. What is ruining you does not have the final claim on your wholeness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that once destruction begins, you are beyond reach.
THE ROOT
שָׁלַח
shalach
GROWS FROM
שלח
To send forth, send away, or release.
“sent” in this verse is shalach. The word is dispatched into the place where people are suffering; it is not merely spoken about from a distance. Shalach holds sending and release together, so the verse’s healing begins with something reaching them and setting them free.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: “Sent”; the name of the waters of Shiloah.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name preserves the image of waters sent forth, echoing the word that goes out to bring restoration.
mishloach: A sending or dispatch.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
This branch keeps the action of sending visible: what is sent moves from its source toward its recipient.
רָפָא
rapha
GROWS FROM
רפא
To heal or restore health.
Healing here sits beside deliverance: the people are healed and brought out from what is destroying them. רָפָא (rapha, heal) also echoes רָפָה (raphah, loosen or let go) in sound, though the written roots differ; the verse’s movement from healing to release makes that echo resonant.
ALSO GROWS
rophe: A healer.
רֹפֵא
This branch names the one who brings healing, showing that the root includes the agent as well as the act.
refu’ah: Healing or a cure.
רְפוּאָה
This branch names healing as a restored condition, the result described in the verse.
מָלַט
malat
GROWS FROM
מלט
To escape, slip away, or bring safely out.
Delivered carries the sense of escape: the people do not remain inside the destruction that has held them. The verse presents healing as movement out of ruin, not mere relief while the ruin continues.
ALSO GROWS
nimlat: Escaped or got away.
נִמְלַט
This form makes the movement from danger explicit: the person is no longer held where destruction reaches.
himlit: Brought safely through or caused to escape.
הִמְלִיט
This form highlights the active deliverance in the verse: someone brings the endangered person out.
THE PATTERN
A word that goes forth reaches a condition and accomplishes restoration there.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.THE THREAD
He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.This verse uses the same Hebrew root for “send” and the same word for “word.” Its image of thaw and flowing waters makes the effect visible: what is locked begins to move.
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