What Does Psalm 121:7 Mean in the King James?
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
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 LORD repeats the same act of guarding over you and your living soul, placing your whole self within that watch.
THE MEANING
The LORD guards you against all evil, and that same keeping holds your living soul. Your whole living self rests within the reach of this watch.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s protection concerns only what happens around you while your inner self is left exposed.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁמָרְךָ
yishmorkha
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
To keep watch over, guard, or preserve.
“preserve” in this verse is yishmorkha. The same verb appears twice: the LORD guards you, then guards your nephesh. The repetition extends the keeping from your life as a whole to the living self at its center.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Keeper, watcher, or guard
שֹׁמֵר
The LORD is called a keeper in this same psalm, making the repeated verb a picture of watchful care.
mishmeret: Watch, guard duty, or charge
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch carries the sense of something held under watch, illuminating the ongoing keeping in the verse.
נַפְשֶׁךָ
nafshekha
GROWS FROM
נפשׁ
The living self; its verbal form also means to recover or refresh oneself.
“soul” in this verse is nafshekha. Nephesh names the living person in their embodied life. The LORD’s keeping reaches this whole living self, not merely an abstract inner part.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: Living soul or living self
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the noun carried into the verse as “thy soul,” naming the person whose life is kept.
naphash: To recover or refresh oneself
נָפַשׁ
This verbal branch adds the sense of restored vitality to the living self under the LORD’s keeping.
רָע
raʿ
GROWS FROM
רעע
To be bad or harmful; the word can describe evil, trouble, or calamity.
Ra can name moral evil as well as harmful trouble. The phrase “all evil” therefore reaches beyond wrongdoing to the harms that threaten a living person.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Bad, evil, or harmful
רַע
This adjective names what the LORD guards you from.
raʿah: Trouble, harm, or calamity
רָעָה
This related form shows how the word can include injurious events as well as moral evil.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s keeping guards living beings and what surrounds them from harm.
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.THE THREAD
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.The word translated “soul” in both verses is נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh, living soul or living self). Psalm 23 shows that same living self being restored, opening Psalm 121’s keeping as care for the whole living person.
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