What Does Psalm 119:173 Mean in the King James?
Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.
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
Choosing God’s precepts does not make you self-sufficient; the chosen path still asks for the hand that helps.
THE MEANING
Your choice of God’s precepts stands beside your request for help; the verse holds both together now. Choosing a way does not make you self-sustaining: God’s hand is the help you ask for as you continue in it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that choosing God’s way means you should be able to carry it alone; the verse places chosen precepts and asked-for help side by side.
THE ROOT
לְעָזְרֵנִי
leʿozreni
GROWS FROM
עזר
ʿ-z-r
To help, aid, or support.
The form translated “help me” comes from עזר (ʿ-z-r; ʿāzar, “to help”), which also forms words for help and helper. The hand here is active support, and Psalm 121:2 uses this same root to name the LORD as the source of help.
ALSO GROWS
ezer: Help or helper.
עֵזֶר
This noun shows that the root names the aid itself as well as the act of helping.
ezrah: Help or assistance.
עֶזְרָה
This branch keeps the verse’s request concrete: the speaker asks for assistance that sustains.
בָּחַרְתִּי
bacharti
GROWS FROM
בחר
b-ḥ-r
To choose or select.
The speaker says, “I have chosen”: this is an active selection, not merely a status assigned to him. The request for help belongs beside a deliberate commitment to God’s precepts.
ALSO GROWS
bachir: Chosen or selected; a chosen one.
בָּחִיר
This branch shows the root can describe the one who is selected, while the verse emphasizes the speaker’s own act of choosing.
mibchar: Choice or the choicest selection.
מִבְחָר
This branch highlights selection and discernment, adding weight to the speaker’s declared choice.
פִּקּוּדֶיךָ
piqqudecha
GROWS FROM
פקד
p-q-d
To attend to, appoint, or oversee.
The word for precepts grows from a root associated with attending to and overseeing. That gives the speaker’s choice the shade of accepting an entrusted charge, whose path still depends on help.
ALSO GROWS
paqīd: An appointed official or overseer.
פָּקִיד
This branch carries the root’s sense of responsibility and oversight, giving precepts the depth of an attended charge.
pequddah: An appointment, charge, or oversight.
פְּקֻדָּה
This branch makes the sense of entrusted responsibility explicit beside the speaker’s chosen precepts.
THE PATTERN
Chosen direction and divine sustaining aid belong together: the person commits to a way and is upheld in it.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.THE THREAD
My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.Both verses use forms of עזר (ʿ-z-r; ʿāzar, “to help”): here the psalmist asks for its aid, while Psalm 121 names the LORD as its source. The hand therefore carries active support, not merely an image of favor.
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