What Does Psalm 142:7 Mean in the King James?
Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.
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
Release does not leave the living soul exposed: the verse brings it out of confinement, then places it within a circle of the righteous.
THE MEANING
Your living soul is brought out from what shuts it in, and release opens into praise of God’s name. You are not left exposed: the righteous encircle you, and God deals generously with you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being shut in means being forgotten: the plea expects release, the company of the righteous, and God’s generous care.
THE ROOT
מִמַּסְגֵּר
mimmasger
GROWS FROM
סגר
sāgar: to shut, close, or enclose.
The word for “prison” grows from the verb “to shut”: the living soul is pictured as enclosed, then asks to be brought out. This root can also describe handing someone over, so the plea reaches beyond a cell to any enclosure that holds a person in another’s power.
ALSO GROWS
hisgîr: Hand over or deliver into another’s power.
הִסְגִּיר
This form keeps the root’s sense of closing someone into a situation, showing how confinement can also mean being placed under another’s control.
misgeret: A frame, setting, or enclosure.
מִסְגֶּרֶת
The shared root names a boundary that encloses; the verse asks for the living soul to be brought beyond that boundary.
יַכְתִּירוּ
yakhtîrû
GROWS FROM
כתר
kātar: to encircle or crown.
The verb translated “compass me about” shares its root with the word for “crown.” The righteous do more than stand nearby: their encircling presence carries the closeness of a crown around the one brought out of confinement.
ALSO GROWS
kātar: To encircle or surround.
כָּתַר
This verbal form makes the surrounding action in the verse explicit.
keter: A crown.
כֶּתֶר
The shared consonants link the encircling of the righteous with the image of a crown held close around the speaker.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance brings the enclosed life into open space and restores the conditions for praise and companionship.
He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.THE THREAD
And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.Psalm 31:8 uses the Hebrew root סגר (sāgar, “to shut”) when the speaker says he has not been shut into the enemy’s hand, then describes being set in a large room. The shared root reveals the same movement here: what is enclosed gives way to spaciousness.
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