What Does Psalm 107:9 Mean in the King James?
For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
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 longing soul and the hungry soul are both נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh, the living soul): desire and fullness meet within one living self.
THE MEANING
Your longing and hunger belong to one living self; the verse does not split them into different kinds of need. God’s goodness satisfies this soul and fills its hunger.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that desire itself makes the soul deficient is undone: the longing soul is the very one God satisfies.
THE ROOT
נֶפֶשׁ
nephesh
GROWS FROM
נ־פ־שׁ
n-p-sh
The related verb means to refresh or restore vitality; the noun carries the senses of living soul, life, person, and appetite.
English “soul” can sound detached from a person’s actual hungers; this Hebrew word can name the living person and appetite together. Its repetition places longing and hunger inside the same living self.
ALSO GROWS
nāphaš: To refresh oneself; to be restored.
נָפַשׁ
The related verb carries a sense of recovered vitality, keeping the living quality of “soul” in view.
nephesh: Living soul, life, person, or appetite.
נֶפֶשׁ
Here the same word names both the longing soul and the hungry soul: appetite belongs to the living self.
הִשְׂבִּיעַ
hisbiaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׂ־ב־ע
ś-b-ʿ
To be sated or have enough; in its causative form, to satisfy.
The verb says he brings the soul to satiety. The root makes “satisfieth” concrete: the longing reaches enough.
ALSO GROWS
śāvēaʿ: Sated; full.
שָׂבֵעַ
This adjective names the state the verse’s satisfying action brings about.
śōvaʿ: Satiety; fullness.
שֹׂבַע
This noun makes the root’s movement toward enoughness visible elsewhere in Hebrew.
מִלֵּא
millēʾ
GROWS FROM
מ־ל־א
m-l-ʾ
To fill or be full.
“filleth” in this verse is millēʾ. The second line uses a different root: one verb brings the soul to satiety, the next fills it. Together they give two complementary images of completion, with goodness as what fills the hungry soul.
ALSO GROWS
mālēʾ: Full; to be full.
מָלֵא
The root includes both the state of fullness and the action that brings it.
melōʾ: Fullness; the full amount.
מְלֹא
This noun echoes the verse’s image of the hungry soul being filled.
THE PATTERN
The living soul’s hunger is met by goodness that brings it to fullness.
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.THE THREAD
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.The Hebrew word for “fulness,” שֹׂבַע (śōvaʿ, satiety or fullness), comes from the same שׂ־ב־ע root as “satisfieth” here. Psalm 16 names fullness of joy; Psalm 107 shows the hungry soul reaching that fullness through goodness.
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