What Does Psalm 121:3 Mean in the King James?
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
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 Hebrew pictures God refusing to give your foot over to slipping: his keeping reaches the moment where your balance could fail.
THE MEANING
Your footing is held within an alert keeping; the one guarding you does not hand you over to instability. The watch over you does not drift into sleep.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that your safety rests on staying vigilant every second: the keeper does not sleep.
THE ROOT
יִתֵּן
yitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
to give, set, or place
The verb behind “suffer” carries the sense of permitting, and its root means “give.” The line pictures God not giving your foot over to a slip, so the protection reaches the point where balance starts to fail.
ALSO GROWS
netinah: giving, a donation
נְתִינָה
This branch keeps the root’s sense of giving visible in the verse’s picture of what your foot is not handed over to.
mattan: gift
מַתָּן
This noun shares the root of “give,” echoing the verse’s image of what is or is not placed into your keeping.
שֹׁמְרֶךָ
shomrekha
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
to guard, watch over, keep
The word translated “keepeth” names an active keeper: the same root holds guarding, watching, and keeping together. The verse’s protection is a watch that remains present while your footing is vulnerable.
ALSO GROWS
shamar: to guard, keep, observe
שָׁמַר
This verb is the seed behind “keepeth,” joining the keeper’s watch to the act of guarding.
mishmeret: guard, charge, watch duty
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch shows the root extending from a keeper to the watch or charge being kept.
יָנוּם
yanum
GROWS FROM
נום
n-w-m
to slumber, doze
“slumber” in this verse is yanum. The verse sets the keeper against the possibility of drowsiness: his watch does not lapse into the state named by this root. The protection remains awake even when a watcher might otherwise nod off.
ALSO GROWS
tenumah: slumber, drowsiness
תְּנוּמָה
This noun names the very drowsiness the verse says does not overtake the keeper.
hitnomem: to doze, grow drowsy
הִתְנוֹמֵם
This related verb gives the root’s sleepiness a gradual edge, which the keeper’s unbroken watch excludes.
THE PATTERN
Divine keeping meets instability at the point of the next step, holding a person through the possibility of falling.
For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,THE THREAD
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.The keeper in verse 3 and the keeper of Israel in verse 4 share the Hebrew root for guarding and watching. The watch widens from your footing to Israel, and the next verse makes the keeper’s wakefulness explicit.
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