What Does Psalm 136:13 Mean in the King James?
To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth for ever:
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 sea becomes a way when it is cut into parts: the opening happens within the barrier itself.
THE MEANING
The divided sea shows a way taking shape inside what first appears unbroken. Faithful love holds this opening across the ages. This same movement is alive now: what blocks passage can open into a route.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a way exists only after every obstacle disappears: here, passage begins within the divided barrier.
THE ROOT
גֹּזֵר
gōzēr
GROWS FROM
גזר
g-z-r
To cut or divide.
“divided into parts” in this verse is gōzēr. The same root names the one cutting and the pieces that result, binding act and outcome in a single word-family. The waters become sections, making a passage imaginable where English gives the image of a divided sea.
ALSO GROWS
gōzēr: One who cuts or divides.
גֹּזֵר
This form names the one who opens the sea by cutting it into sections.
gĕzārîm: Pieces or sections.
גְּזָרִים
This is what the sea becomes: divided portions through which passage can open.
חַסְדּוֹ
ḥasdô
GROWS FROM
חסד
ḥ-s-d
Loyal, steadfast kindness; faithful love.
“mercy” in this verse is ḥasdô. Chesed names the loyal love that sustains and acts; its related forms describe acting kindly and the faithful person. The refrain sets the sea’s opening within a continuing bond of faithful love.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsad: To act kindly or loyally.
חָסַד
This verbal form presents faithful love as an action, matching the opening described in the verse.
ḥāsîd: A faithful or devoted person.
חָסִיד
This branch shows chesed as a lived quality, not only a feeling.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance opens a way by dividing the barrier, while faithful love endures through the passage.
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.THE THREAD
And made Israel to pass through the midst of it: for his mercy endureth for ever:The next verse makes the purpose of the dividing explicit: a way opens through the middle. Its repeated refrain binds passage to faithful love, showing the opening as the form that love takes here.
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