What Does Psalm 113:9 Mean in the King James?
He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.
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 verse’s hidden turn is that the barren woman is not merely given a child; she is settled into a home as a joyful mother.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to your present experience of barrenness without making barrenness your permanent name. Its image is a settled home, a mother among children, and joy no longer held outside.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An empty season means you are permanently cut off from belonging, fruitfulness, and joy.
THE ROOT
מוֹשִׁיבִי
moshivi
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-b
To sit or dwell; in its causative form, to seat or settle.
“maketh ... to keep house” in this verse is moshivi. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of settling someone into a place, so the verse describes more than a change in status: the barren woman is given a dwelling among family. The English “keep house” can hide that movement into a place of belonging.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: Sit, dwell, remain.
יָשַׁב
This basic form shows the dwelling at the heart of the verse’s image.
moshav: Dwelling, seat, settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This related noun makes the idea of being established in a home visible.
עֲקֶרֶת
ʿaqeret
GROWS FROM
עקר
ʿ-q-r
Be barren; uproot or pull up.
The root can name both barrenness and uprooting, echoing the difference between being cut off from fruitfulness and being settled in a home. The verse lets “barren” be real while refusing to leave it as the woman’s only name.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaqār: Barren, unfruitful.
עָקָר
This related form names the condition that the verse’s turn transforms.
ʿāqar: Uproot, pull up.
עָקַר
This verb echoes the sense of being cut off that stands against the woman’s new place in a home.
THE PATTERN
The one called barren is brought into fruitfulness and shared joy.
They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.THE THREAD
God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.Both verses use the Hebrew root ישב (y-sh-b), meaning sit or dwell, in a causative form: God settles the solitary into families and the barren woman in a home. The shared root reveals the same movement from isolation into belonging.
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