What Does Psalm 110:3 Mean in the King James?
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
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 people gathered in power are themselves freewill offerings, pictured as dew newly born from the womb of dawn.
THE MEANING
Power gathers a people whose readiness is voluntary, and their presence shines in holy splendor. Their youth is pictured as dew from the womb of morning: fresh and arriving with the dawn.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that strength can gather people only through compulsion: here, the people are willing offerings.
THE ROOT
נְדָבֹת
nedavot
GROWS FROM
נדב
n-d-b
To volunteer, offer freely, or act generously.
“willing” in this verse is nedavot. נְדָבֹת carries the sense of freewill giving: the people are described through the language of what is offered freely. Their readiness is self-given, woven into the image of power.
ALSO GROWS
nedavah: A freewill offering.
נְדָבָה
This branch makes the verse’s willingness concrete: readiness belongs to the same word family as a gift freely brought.
nadiv: Generous, noble, or freely giving.
נָדִיב
This branch shows willingness as a quality of character, illuminating the people’s readiness as an open-handed response.
hitnadev: To volunteer or offer oneself freely.
הִתְנַדֵּב
This verb gives the verse’s people an active form: they freely offer themselves.
רֶחֶם
rechem
GROWS FROM
רחם
r-ḥ-m
Womb; the same root is shared by words for compassion.
The morning is pictured as a womb, holding the image of life emerging at dawn. The same consonants also form the Hebrew words for compassion, giving the image an undertone of tender, life-bearing care.
ALSO GROWS
raḥamim: Compassion or tender mercy.
רַחֲמִים
This branch shares the womb’s root and lets the dawn image carry a sense of life held with compassion.
raḥam: To show compassion or have mercy.
רָחַם
The verb keeps the root’s association with compassionate care present alongside the morning’s image of emergence.
THE PATTERN
The people gathered in divine power appear through freely offered readiness.
Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the LORD had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.THE THREAD
Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.Both verses use נדב (nadav, to volunteer or offer freely). Judges names the people’s willing self-offering directly, opening Psalm 110:3’s image of readiness as something freely given.
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