What Does Psalm 124:5 Mean in the King James?
Then the proud waters had gone over our 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 word translated “proud” shares a root with “boil up,” picturing presumption as waters seething over the living self.
THE MEANING
This verse gives language to a moment when pressure is no longer around you but has crossed into your whole living self. It calls the waters presumptuous, as though the force pressing in acts as if no boundary can stop it.
THE ROOT
זֵידוֹנִים
zedonim
GROWS FROM
זוד
To boil up; to act presumptuously.
The word for “proud” comes from a root that also describes boiling. That shared seed lets the verse picture arrogance as a seething force that surges over the living self.
ALSO GROWS
nazid: Stew or pottage, something boiled.
נָזִיד
Genesis 25:29 uses this word for the pottage Jacob boils; it preserves the root’s concrete image of boiling.
zadon: Presumption or arrogance.
זָדוֹן
This branch names the overreaching attitude carried by the “proud” waters in the verse.
נַפְשֵׁנוּ
nafshenu
GROWS FROM
נפש
To refresh oneself or recover.
Nefesh means the living soul, the living person, not a detached inner part. The waters cross over that whole living self, so the threat reaches life itself.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul; living person.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word translated “soul” here, naming the life the waters pass over.
nafash: To refresh oneself or take respite.
נָפַשׁ
This verb from the same root carries the possibility of recovery within the word family of the living soul.
THE PATTERN
Threatening waters can reach the living soul, yet scripture depicts their force as answerable to a boundary, a presence, or a voice.
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David. Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David. Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.Both verses place waters against the נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), the living soul. Psalm 69 gives the submerged voice words; Psalm 124 names the waters as presumptuous and overreaching.
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