What Does Psalm 122:4 Mean in the King James?
Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD.
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
Israel’s tribes ascend together in public praise, and that praise is already woven into Judah’s name.
THE MEANING
You see the tribes rise together toward the LORD’s testimony and give thanks to the LORD’s name, the nature revealed in the LORD. Their thanks is shared acknowledgment, making the gathering itself a witness. The verse holds ascent, belonging, and praise in one act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that thanksgiving is only a private feeling: here it is a shared act of acknowledging the LORD’s nature.
THE ROOT
לְהוֹדוֹת
lehodot
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ה
y-d-h
Acknowledge, praise, or confess.
“give thanks” in this verse is lehodot. The word for giving thanks carries the wider sense of openly acknowledging and praising. Its root is also linked in Genesis to Judah’s name, so praise is present both in the tribes’ gathering and in the name of one of the tribes.
ALSO GROWS
todah: Thanksgiving, praise, and, in some contexts, a thanksgiving offering.
תּוֹדָה
It shows that thanks can be expressed as public praise, not only felt inwardly.
Yehudah: Judah, whose name Leah connects with praising the LORD.
יְהוּדָה
Judah is one of the tribes named in the verse, and its name echoes the praise they gather to offer.
עָלוּ
ʿālû
GROWS FROM
ע־ל־ה
ʿ-l-h
Rise, go up, ascend.
“go up” in this verse is ʿālû. The tribes’ movement is literally upward: this is an ascent toward a shared gathering. The same root appears in words for ascent and for an offering that rises, giving the pilgrimage a movement toward the LORD as well as a destination.
ALSO GROWS
aliyah: An ascent or going up.
עֲלִיָּה
It keeps the physical movement in view: the tribes rise together toward the gathering.
olah: An offering associated with rising or ascending.
עֹלָה
It echoes the verse’s upward movement in a word for an offering that rises.
עֵדוּת
ʿēdût
GROWS FROM
ע־ו־ד
ʿ-w-d
Bear witness, testify.
The tribes ascend toward Israel’s testimony, a shared witness or charge. The gathering is oriented around what Israel bears witness to together, rather than being only a collection of separate journeys.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēd: A witness.
עֵד
It makes the testimony concrete: someone or something bears witness.
heʿid: Testified or bore witness.
הֵעִיד
It shows the root as an act of bearing witness, which gives depth to Israel’s shared testimony.
THE PATTERN
Gathering toward the LORD turns individual movement into shared praise.
Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.THE THREAD
And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.The root of “give thanks” echoes in יְהוּדָה (Yehudah, Judah), whose name Leah links to praising the LORD. Psalm 122 brings the tribes, including Judah, together in the very act of praise carried in that name.
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