What Does Psalm 107:5 Mean in the King James?
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
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 image behind “fainted” includes being enveloped, so hunger and thirst wrap around the living self.
THE MEANING
Your hunger and thirst reach beyond bodily sensation: your living soul feels enveloped by need. The verse names that inward faintness as part of the whole person’s experience.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that bodily deprivation stays merely physical, leaving the inner life untouched.
THE ROOT
תִּתְעַטָּף
titʿaṭṭāph
GROWS FROM
עטף
To wrap, cover, or envelop.
The verb translated “fainted” also carries the image of being wrapped or enveloped. The verse pictures need closing around the living self, not simply a loss of energy.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāṭaph: To wrap or cover.
עָטַף
This is the root’s concrete image beneath the verse’s description of faintness.
hitʿattef: To become enveloped, overwhelmed, or faint.
הִתְעַטֵּף
This related form shows how being wrapped in can describe the inner experience the verse names.
נַפְשָׁם
nafsham
GROWS FROM
נפש
The living self, the person in the fullness of life and appetite.
“Soul” can sound like a separate inner part, but נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh, living soul) names the living person. Hunger and thirst are felt by that whole self, not by the body apart from it.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: Living soul, person, or appetite.
נֶפֶשׁ
Its range holds together the living person and the desire expressed by hunger and thirst.
wayyinnāphēsh: Was refreshed or took respite.
וַיִּנָּפֵשׁ
This related verb appears in the description of rest; the same living self that is overwhelmed can also be refreshed.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats hunger and thirst as the longing of the whole living self, with fullness answering need.
To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.THE THREAD
When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.Jonah repeats the same Hebrew pairing for “my soul” and “fainted,” linking the living self with the image of being enveloped. His line also holds remembrance and prayer within that faintness.
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