What Does Psalm 144:3 Mean in the King James?
LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!
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 verse’s wonder is that the ground-being is known by encounter and held in deliberate consideration.
THE MEANING
You are named as adam, the ground-being, and the verse holds your earthiness beside God’s knowing and deliberate regard. Its paired verbs show that you are both known and considered.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Your smallness makes you beneath notice; this verse places the human being within God’s knowing and consideration.
THE ROOT
יָדַע
yadaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
to know or perceive by encounter
“takest knowledge” in this verse is yadaʿ. The verse uses yadaʿ for knowing a person directly. Paired with the next verb, this knowing becomes one face of God’s deliberate attention to the human being.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: knowledge
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root names the knowing at the center of the verse.
yodeaʿ: one who knows
יֹדֵעַ
This form keeps the focus on a knower in relation to someone known.
חָשַׁב
ḥashav
GROWS FROM
חשב
ḥ-sh-v
to think, reckon, or consider
“makest account” in this verse is ḥashav. The second verb carries the sense of weighing or considering someone. The verse pairs knowing by encounter with holding a person in thought, giving God’s attention both intimacy and deliberateness.
ALSO GROWS
maḥashavah: thought, plan
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This branch shows the root’s reach into what is held in the mind.
ḥeshbon: account, reckoning
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
This branch echoes the verse’s language of taking account of the human being.
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
אדם
ʾ-d-m
the human, linked with אֲדָמָה (adamah), ground or soil
“man” in this verse is adam. Adam carries the ground in its name: the human being is earth-linked and creaturely. The verse lets that earthiness stand alongside God’s knowing and consideration.
ALSO GROWS
adamah: ground, soil
אֲדָמָה
This branch makes the name’s bond to the earth explicit.
adom: red, ruddy
אָדֹם
The shared consonants link the human name with the language of earth’s color.
THE PATTERN
Divine regard reaches finite human life through specific knowing and attention.
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.Psalm 144:3 uses yadaʿ (יָדַע), meaning to know or perceive by encounter; Psalm 139:1 uses that same root for knowing the speaker after searching. The shared root opens the verse’s wonder as personal knowing, directed toward the one being considered.
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