What Does Psalm 137:6 Mean in the King James?
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
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 singer does not set Jerusalem beside joy but raises its wholeness above joy’s highest point.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks where memory and joy meet: Jerusalem’s wholeness stands above the speaker’s highest delight. When she is forgotten, the tongue is pictured as losing its freedom to speak, as if joy cut loose from wholeness cannot give voice to what matters. What is held highest shapes what the mouth can call joy.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the lie that personal joy can stay full while Jerusalem’s wholeness is treated as secondary.
THE ROOT
אעלה
a’aleh
GROWS FROM
עלה
To go up, ascend, or bring up.
The verb translated “prefer” carries the motion of raising Jerusalem above the head of the speaker’s joy. The verse gives allegiance a vertical shape: Jerusalem is lifted above even joy at its highest point.
ALSO GROWS
ʿOlah: An offering that goes up.
עֹלָה
This branch keeps the root’s upward movement visible in the verse’s image of Jerusalem being raised.
Maʿalah: An ascent or upward step.
מַעֲלָה
It echoes the verse’s ordering: Jerusalem is given the higher place.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be complete or whole.
The name carries the echo of shalom, wholeness. Raised above joy, Jerusalem becomes more than a place in the verse: she stands for a wholeness that joy itself rests beneath.
ALSO GROWS
Shalem: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
It shows the completeness carried in Jerusalem’s name.
Shalom: Wholeness or well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
It reveals the kind of wholeness the speaker keeps above personal delight.
שִׂמְחָתִי
simchati
GROWS FROM
שמח
To rejoice, be glad, or make glad.
“joy” in this verse is simchati. The word is not a detached feeling: the same root describes rejoicing and making glad. The verse places even this active, shared gladness beneath Jerusalem’s wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
Sameach: Joyful or rejoicing.
שָׂמֵחַ
It shows joy as a state of gladness that the speaker places below Jerusalem.
Simmeach: To gladden or make glad.
שִׂמֵּחַ
This branch shows gladness as something that can be given, not only privately possessed.
THE PATTERN
What stands above personal joy gives joy its order and fullness.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.THE THREAD
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.The word for joy in Psalm 137:6, simchati (שִׂמְחָתִי), meaning “my joy,” shares the root שמח with the joy in Psalm 16:11. Psalm 16 shows that same joy reaching fullness in God’s presence, so Jerusalem’s higher place does not erase joy; it locates joy within wholeness.
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