What Does Psalm 119:131 Mean in the King James?
I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments.
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 speaker’s longing for God’s commandments takes the shape of a body opening its mouth and panting for them.
THE MEANING
Your mouth opens; you pant for God’s commandments. The verse gives desire a bodily urgency, directed toward God’s instruction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that divine instruction can be approached only as obligation; here, the speaker craves it with physical urgency.
THE ROOT
וָאֶשְׁאָפָה
va’esha’afah
GROWS FROM
שׁ־א־ף
sha’af
To pant or gasp; also to pursue eagerly, with force.
“panted” in this verse is va’esha’afah. This verb gives longing the urgency of panting. Elsewhere its force describes people who swallow others up, so the appetite it names can consume; here, its object is God’s commandments.
ALSO GROWS
sha’afu: A plural form of the verb, rendered “swallow me up” in the KJV.
שָׁאֲפוּ
It shows the pursuing force this root can carry; here that force is directed toward God’s commandments.
hasho’afim: Those described as swallowing up the needy, in the KJV rendering.
הַשֹּׁאֲפִים
The same root can name a predatory appetite, giving the speaker’s panting for instruction a vivid and different direction.
לְמִצְוֹתֶיךָ
lemitzvotecha
GROWS FROM
צ־ו־ה
tsavah
To command, charge, or direct.
The word for commandments grows from a root of command and charge. Here that charge is something the speaker longs for, turning direction into the object of urgent desire.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: A command or instruction given.
מִצְוָה
This is the singular form related to the word translated “commandments” in the verse.
tsav: A direct command or precept, from the same root.
צַו
It shows the root’s sense of directing, the very thing the speaker longs to receive.
THE PATTERN
Desire for God’s direction can take the form of bodily appetite, not merely abstract agreement.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.THE THREAD
And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.It uses the same Hebrew word for “commandments,” מִצְוֹת (mitzvot, commandments), from צוה (tsavah, command or charge), and places it beside delight and love. The panting in this verse gives that attachment a bodily form.
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