What Does Psalm 119:70 Mean in the King James?

Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.

Psalm 119:70 · KJV

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 verse places a heart thickened shut beside delight in instruction: the difference is not access to the word, but openness to receive it.

THE MEANING

You can have instruction near you while your heart remains dull to it; delight marks a different kind of receiving. Here, instruction is not merely something possessed but a direction the heart can welcome.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Having access to sacred instruction does not automatically make the heart receptive.

THE ROOT

תּוֹרָתְךָ

toratkha

GROWS FROM

ירה

yarah

To throw or cast; by extension, to point out or instruct.

“law” in this verse is toratkha. Instruction shares its root with the idea of pointing or directing: it carries a way forward, not merely a rule to possess. The contrast is between a heart that has thickened shut and one that delights in being directed.

ALSO GROWS

yarah: To throw, cast, shoot, or direct.

יָרָה

The sense of direction in this verb illuminates instruction as something that points the heart toward a way.

moreh: Teacher or instructor.

מוֹרֶה

The teacher is one who directs; the verse’s delight is in receiving that guidance.

torah: Instruction or teaching.

תּוֹרָה

This is the word’s uninflected form: the verse’s delight rests in instruction received as direction.

THE PATTERN

A heart’s response to instruction reveals its openness: delight receives and holds it, while hardness leaves it unperceived.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Psalm 1:2 · KJVDelight in instruction keeps it present in the heart through sustained attention.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Romans 7:22 · KJVThe inward delight echoes the verse’s contrast between a dulled heart and one that welcomes instruction.

For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.

Mark 6:52 · KJVA hardened heart fails to perceive what is before it, the opposite of the receiving delight named here.

THE THREAD

Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.

Psalm 119:92 · KJV

This verse repeats the same instruction word and the same delight root. It shows that delight in instruction is not a passing preference: it keeps the heart from being swallowed by affliction.

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