What Does Psalm 119:96 Mean in the King James?
I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.
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
Every perfection has an edge, while the LORD’s commandment opens into a breadth no completed measure can contain.
THE MEANING
You can see that every form of completion comes to a boundary. The LORD’s commandment remains astonishingly spacious, extending beyond any finished measure. Its breadth meets you as room to inhabit, reaching past each completed form.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the LORD’s commandment is a finite checklist with a finish line; the verse sets its vast breadth against every completed perfection.
THE ROOT
רְחָבָה
rechavah
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ב
rachav
To be wide or spacious; to make room.
“Broad” also carries the feel of open, inhabitable space, as in the Hebrew noun for a wide place and the verb for making room. The commandment’s reach is spaciousness lived, with room that extends beyond any completed form.
ALSO GROWS
merchav: A spacious place.
מֶרְחָב
Psalm 18:19 uses this word for the large place into which the speaker is brought, showing breadth as room to inhabit.
hirchiv: To make something wider or create room.
הִרְחִיב
This branch can describe being enlarged in distress, so the root’s breadth also carries the sense of space opening where there was pressure.
תכלה
tikhlah
GROWS FROM
כ־ל־ה
kalah
To complete, finish, or come to an end; to be consumed.
The word rendered “perfection” carries the sense of completion or utmost extent, and the verse pairs it with an end. What reaches its full measure can still have a boundary; the commandment’s breadth is set beside that limit.
ALSO GROWS
kalah: To come to completion or an end; sometimes, to be consumed.
כָּלָה
This verb makes clear that completion can mean reaching an endpoint, the very limit the verse says even perfection has.
takhlit: The furthest extent or completion of something.
תַּכְלִית
This related form shows how the root can name both completeness and the boundary of what is complete.
THE PATTERN
Every finished measure reaches an edge, while the LORD’s instruction opens into spaciousness beyond it.
And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.THE THREAD
He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.Psalm 18:19 uses מֶרְחָב (merchav, “wide place”), from רָחַב (rachav, “to become wide or spacious”), the same root behind “broad” here. The commandment’s breadth appears as an open place the speaker is brought into.
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