What Does Psalm 118:2 Mean in the King James?
Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.
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 one named Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל, Yisra’el, “one who strives with God”) is summoned to voice a faithful love that spans every age.
THE MEANING
Israel is called to say now that the LORD’s חֶסֶד (chesed, faithful love) spans every עוֹלָם (olam, age). The reader enters that shared voice: the love named here reaches across each passing age.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that struggle places a person beyond faithful love: Israel itself, the name of one who strives with God, speaks of love that endures through every age.
THE ROOT
חַסְדּוֹ
chasdo
GROWS FROM
חסד
Faithful, loyal love expressed through committed care.
English “mercy” carries the tenderness of the word; חֶסֶד (chesed) also holds the steadiness of faithful love. The verse names a love whose defining quality is that it remains.
ALSO GROWS
chasid: A faithful or devoted person.
חָסִיד
The same root can describe not only the love being declared but a person marked by faithfulness.
chasidim: Faithful or devoted ones.
חֲסִידִים
The plural lets this root name a community, echoing Israel’s shared declaration.
לְעוֹלָם
le’olam
GROWS FROM
עלם
A distant or hidden span; עוֹלָם (olam) names an age, long duration, or world.
“for ever” in this verse is le’olam. The Hebrew phrase carries the declaration across the ages. Paired with chesed, it gives faithful love a reach wider than the present moment.
ALSO GROWS
olam: An age, long duration, or world.
עוֹלָם
This is the core word in the phrase, placing the declaration within a span beyond one moment.
ne’elam: Hidden or concealed.
נֶעְלָם
This related form shares the root’s association with what recedes from sight; the love named here reaches beyond what the reader can presently see.
יֹאמַר־נָא
yomar-na
GROWS FROM
אמר
To say or speak.
“say” in this verse is yomar-na. The verse invites Israel to give the declaration a present voice. Faithful love is not left as an unseen claim; it is spoken together.
ALSO GROWS
imrah: A saying or utterance.
אִמְרָה
This related word makes speech itself visible as a form the root can take.
ma’amar: A statement or saying.
מַאֲמָר
The same root can name a spoken statement, like the declaration Israel voices here.
THE PATTERN
Faithful love is voiced as a reality that outlasts each moment and generation.
O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.THE THREAD
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;Psalm 103:17 repeats חֶסֶד (chesed, faithful love) and עוֹלָם (olam, age), binding the same love to a span “from everlasting to everlasting.” Its closing phrase, “unto children’s children,” gives that long reach the shape of generations.
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