What Does Psalm 119:46 Mean in the King James?
I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.
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 testimony is spoken before kings, so its truth is not waiting for the powerful to authorize it.
THE MEANING
The verse gives the reader a voice that speaks testimony in the presence of power. The kings’ gaze does not become the measure of whether that voice is worthy or shameful.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a ruler’s presence makes truthful speech shameful.
THE ROOT
אֵבוֹשׁ
ʾēvōsh
GROWS FROM
בּוֹשׁ
To be ashamed, disappointed, or confounded.
The root בּוֹשׁ (bōsh, “be ashamed”) is also visible in בּוּשָׁה (būshāh, “shame”). Here, being before rulers does not turn exposure into inward disgrace, so the testimony remains speakable under their gaze.
ALSO GROWS
būshāh: Shame, disgrace.
בּוּשָׁה
This noun shares the root’s consonants and names the condition the speaker says will not govern him.
yēvōsh: He will be ashamed.
יֵבוֹשׁ
This verb form shares the root and shows the same response from another point of view; the verse’s first-person form refuses that response.
אֲדַבְּרָה
ʾadabberāh
GROWS FROM
דָּבָר
To speak, utter, or declare.
The root דבר (dāvar, “speak”) also gives the noun דָּבָר (dāvar, “word, matter, thing”). Speech and the matter spoken belong to one family: this testimony is not an abstraction, but a matter given voice before rulers.
ALSO GROWS
dāvar: Word, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
The shared root holds spoken words together with the matters they express.
medabbēr: Speaking; one who speaks.
מְדַבֵּר
This participle from the same root makes the speaker visible in the act: the testimony reaches the room through a voice.
THE PATTERN
Truth is voiced openly before power without receiving its authority from power.
A Psalm of David. I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.THE THREAD
For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.Both verses draw on בּוֹשׁ (bōsh, “be ashamed”), the same Hebrew root. Isaiah places the refusal of shame beside a face set like flint, opening Psalm 119:46’s unashamed speech as steadiness before human authority.
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