What Does Psalm 119:112 Mean in the King James?
I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end.
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 heart’s inward turn is already a trajectory into action.
THE MEANING
Your inner direction takes shape in what you keep doing: the LORD’s prescribed instruction becomes a lived practice. The commitment reaches through the whole course of life, all the way to its end.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sincere heart is only what you feel inside, even if it never shapes your conduct.
THE ROOT
נָטִיתִי
nāṭîtî
GROWS FROM
נטה
nṭh
To extend, stretch out, incline, or turn.
“inclined” in this verse is nāṭîtî. The verb gives the heart a direction: it is extended toward what the speaker intends to do. The English can sound like a private attitude, while the Hebrew points to an inward turn that leads into practice.
ALSO GROWS
netiyyah: Inclination or stretching out.
נְטִיָּה
This related noun keeps the sense of a direction being extended, illuminating the heart’s deliberate orientation.
maṭṭeh: Staff, rod, or tribe.
מַטֶּה
The related noun carries the idea of an extended line into a concrete form, echoing how the heart’s direction takes shape in action.
חֻקֶּיךָ
ḥuqqêkā
GROWS FROM
חקק
ḥ-q-q
To cut or inscribe, and by extension to prescribe or decree.
This word belongs to a family joining inscription with decree: the statutes are a fixed form of instruction. To perform them is to give that prescribed form expression in one’s conduct.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāqaq: To carve, inscribe, or decree.
חָקַק
The act of inscribing helps reveal the fixed shape carried by the statutes.
ḥoq: A statute, decree, or prescribed portion.
חֹק
This related noun makes clear that the instruction is a defined practice, not merely an idea held inwardly.
THE PATTERN
A heart’s direction becomes visible and enduring in the actions it chooses.
Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.THE THREAD
Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.Joshua uses the same Hebrew verb for inclining the heart. It pairs that turn with putting away rival gods, showing the heart’s direction as a concrete reorientation of what it serves.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us