What Does Psalm 130:2 Mean in the King James?
Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
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 plea is not just asking to be heard; its very name is an appeal for favor.
THE MEANING
This verse gives your plea a voice before God and asks for more than sound to be registered: it asks for attentive hearing. “Supplications” names appeals for favor, so the prayer rests in the possibility of gracious attention even before any answer is named.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעָה
shimʿah
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear, listen, heed; here, hearing leans toward response.
“hear” in this verse is shimʿah. The request is for more than sound to reach God: the root can carry the sense of hearing with heed. The prayer asks for attention that receives the voice as a plea.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar imperative shows the root’s movement from hearing toward response.
shemuʿah: Report, news; what is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root names both the act of hearing and something received through hearing, linking the voice to what reaches its listener.
תַּחֲנוּנָי
taḥanunai
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
Show favor; be gracious.
The word translated “supplications” grows from the root for favor. The prayer is therefore voiced as an appeal to be met graciously, not merely as a request for a hearing.
ALSO GROWS
ḥen: Favor.
חֵן
This branch makes explicit the favor carried within the word for supplication.
ḥannûn: Gracious; one who shows favor.
חַנּוּן
The branch describes the gracious attention the supplicant is asking for.
THE PATTERN
A voiced plea is presented as something God hears, not something lost in silence.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:THE THREAD
The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.Psalm 130 asks the LORD to hear, and Psalm 34 uses the same Hebrew שמע root in “heareth.” The connection moves from petition to assurance: the cry reaches hearing, and hearing is joined to deliverance.
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