What Does Psalm 121:6 Mean in the King James?
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
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
By pairing sun and moon, the verse places both halves of time inside the same protection.
THE MEANING
This promise reaches you across the full daily cycle. The sun cannot strike you by day, and the moon cannot strike you at night; the keeping holds when one light gives way to the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The day may be guarded while the night lies outside that care.
THE ROOT
יָרֵחַ
yārēaḥ
GROWS FROM
ירח
y-r-ḥ
The moon and its month-cycle
Hebrew uses יָרֵחַ (yārēaḥ, moon) and יֶרַח (yeraḥ, month) from this word family. The nighttime light is also a marker of counted time, so alongside the day the verse names protection through the cycle’s turning.
ALSO GROWS
yārēaḥ: Moon
יָרֵחַ
This is the verse’s night light; its word family also keeps the cycle of time in view.
yeraḥ: Month
יֶרַח
The moon’s word family names a month, connecting night with a larger measure of time.
יַכֶּכָּה
yakkekha
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
Strike, hit, smite
“smite” in this verse is yakkekha. The root נכה (nākhāh, strike or hit) presents the threat as a blow that could land, not a vague unease. Its branches name both the blow and the act of striking, while this verse says the sun and moon do not land that impact.
ALSO GROWS
makkāh: Blow, wound, or plague
מַכָּה
This branch shows that the root’s strike can name an actual injury or affliction, the impact held back here.
hikkāh: He struck
הִכָּה
This verbal form names the striking act itself, which the verse denies to the sun and moon.
THE PATTERN
God’s protection holds across alternating kinds of exposure, from daytime heat to nighttime danger.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.THE THREAD
They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.Isaiah uses the same נכה (nākhāh, “strike/smite”) root when it says the sun will not smite; the same blow named here is blocked there amid heat and thirst. Psalm 121 widens that protection from the sun’s day to the moon’s night.
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