What Does Psalm 118:5 Mean in the King James?
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.
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 answer is pictured as an expanse: the cry comes from constriction, while the response opens into room.
THE MEANING
The cry rises inside constriction, but the response opens into space. The verse holds the call and the answer together, so distress is a real place of experience without being the limit of what can be experienced.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that narrowness is permanent or total; the verse gives the answer a spacious setting.
THE ROOT
מֶרְחָב
merḥav
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be wide; to become spacious.
The word translated “large place” is מֶרְחָב (merḥav), from רחב (raḥav, to be wide). Its branches tie the answer to expanded room: the response is pictured as more than a reply; it opens space around the caller.
ALSO GROWS
raḥav: Wide, broad.
רָחָב
This adjective names the quality contained in the large place: breadth replaces constriction.
hirḥiv: To widen, enlarge.
הִרְחִיב
This causative form shows the root as an opening or widening, illuminating the spaciousness of the answer.
THE PATTERN
A cry from constriction is answered by widening the space in which life can unfold.
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.Psalm 4 uses the same root רחב (raḥav, to be wide) in “thou hast enlarged me.” It places that widening beside distress, opening Psalm 118’s large place as an answer that makes room where constriction had been.
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