What Does Psalm 116:7 Mean in the King James?
Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.
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 soul’s rest is a homecoming: it returns to settledness because the LORD has already dealt generously with it.
THE MEANING
Your living soul is called to return to its resting place. The LORD’s generous dealing is named as the ground for that return. The verse meets you now in the movement from inward unrest toward rest.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that rest must wait until you have earned it through enough effort. This verse grounds the soul’s return in the LORD’s generosity toward you.
THE ROOT
שׁוּבִי
shuvî
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
Turn back; return.
The feminine imperative שׁוּבִי addresses נַפְשִׁי, a feminine word for the living soul, as something that can turn back. Joined to מְנוּחָה (menuchah, rest), it frames rest as a return into settledness.
ALSO GROWS
yeshovev: Restore, bring back.
יְשׁוֹבֵב
Psalm 23:3 uses this form for “restoreth”; restoration carries the motion of return.
teshuvah: Return, turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun preserves the root’s movement of turning back.
נַפְשִׁי
nafshî
GROWS FROM
נ־פ־שׁ
The living self; a person, including their appetite or desire.
Nefesh points to the living self as a whole. Its consonantal family also has the verb נָפַשׁ (nafash), “be refreshed,” linking the living self with refreshment in a way the English word “soul” can hide.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul; living self.
נֶפֶשׁ
Here the speaker addresses the living self as it returns to rest.
nafash: Be refreshed; recover.
נָפַשׁ
Exodus 31:17 uses this same consonant family for being refreshed, joining the living self with renewal.
לִמְנוּחָיְכִי
limnuchayikhi
GROWS FROM
נ־ו־ח
Settle; rest; come to rest.
The noun presents rest as settledness, a place the soul can return to. The pairing of shuv and nuach gives that return an arrival: the living self turns and settles.
ALSO GROWS
nuach: Settle; rest.
נוּחַ
This verb carries the underlying movement into settledness.
manoach: Resting place.
מָנוֹחַ
The same root can name a place of rest, as in Ruth 3:1, illuminating the verse’s picture of rest as somewhere the soul returns.
THE PATTERN
The living self returns to settledness on the strength of a generosity already received.
For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.THE THREAD
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.The Hebrew verb יְשׁוֹבֵב (yeshovev), translated “restoreth,” comes from שׁוּב (shuv), the same root behind “Return” here. The shared root makes restoration the living soul’s return.
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