What Does Psalm 107:3 Mean in the King James?

And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.

Psalm 107:3 · KJV

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’s last horizon is the sea, hidden behind the KJV’s “south,” and even that edge lies within the gathering.

THE MEANING

You are met wherever scattering has carried you. The gathering crosses every horizon and reaches you in the place you inhabit now.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that distance has made you unreachable loses its hold here: the gathering extends to every horizon named by the verse.

THE ROOT

קִבְּצָם

qibbetzam

GROWS FROM

קבץ

q-b-ts

to gather, collect

⁨קִבְּצָם⁩ (qibbetzam, “he gathered them”) carries the seed ⁨קבץ⁩ (q-b-ts, “gather, collect”); the related form ⁨מְקַבֵּץ⁩ (meqabbets, “one who gathers”) shares that seed. The Hebrew’s final horizon is ⁨יָם⁩ (yam, “sea”); the KJV renders it “south,” bringing the gathering to the sea-edge as well as the named directions.

ALSO GROWS

qibbēts: gathered, collected

קִבֵּץ

This verb is the action at the heart of the verse: people are collected from across the lands.

meqabbets: one who gathers

מְקַבֵּץ

The same root can name the gatherer as well as the act, joining the gathering to the one who brings it about.

THE PATTERN

What is scattered across every horizon can be gathered into a shared whole.

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.

Deuteronomy 30:3 · KJVThe scattered are gathered from every nation, so dispersion does not have the final word.

And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Isaiah 11:12 · KJVGathering reaches people dispersed to the earth’s four corners.

And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

John 11:52 · KJVThe scattered are gathered together in one, making wholeness the shape of the gathering.

THE THREAD

Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;

Isaiah 43:5 · KJV

Isaiah uses the same root ⁨קבץ⁩ (q-b-ts, “gather, collect”) in ⁨אֲקַבֵּצֵךְ⁩ (aqabbetsēkh, “I will gather you”). Its direct address makes the gathering personal: the distance between horizons does not place you beyond its reach.

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