What Does Psalm 122:3 Mean in the King James?
Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together:
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
Jerusalem is pictured as whole because its parts are joined, and the word for “compact together” also grows into the word for a companion.
THE MEANING
This verse shows you wholeness taking the form of connection: Jerusalem is one city because its parts are joined. The Hebrew word behind “compact together” also gives words for companion and connection, so the city’s unity is relational as well as structural. The city’s name carries a resonance of wholeness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Wholeness requires being self-contained; this city is whole through its joined parts.
THE ROOT
חֻבְּרָה
chubberah
GROWS FROM
חבר
to join, bind, or associate
The word translated “compact together” comes from the same root as words for a companion and a connection. The city’s unity is not mere closeness: its parts are bound into relationship.
ALSO GROWS
chaver: companion, associate
חָבֵר
This branch makes the city’s joinedness relational: its parts are companions within one whole.
chibbur: connection, joining
חִבּוּר
This branch names the joining itself, showing how separate parts become a connected whole.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
to be whole or complete
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The city’s name carries the resonance of wholeness, which the verse makes visible through joined parts. Its unity is not abstract: it takes shape as a city held together.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
This is the wholeness carried in the city’s name resonance and pictured in its joined parts.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch names completeness, which the city expresses through parts joined into one.
THE PATTERN
A dwelling of wholeness takes shape as many parts are joined into one.
And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.A Song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:THE THREAD
And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.The word translated “couple” comes from חָבַר (chabar), meaning “to join,” the same root behind “compact together” in this verse. The tabernacle becomes one dwelling through joined pieces, opening Jerusalem’s unity as a form of joinery.
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