What Does Psalm 20:9 Mean in the King James?
Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.
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 call rises from constriction toward an answer that opens space.
THE MEANING
This verse holds rescue and response together: the LORD is asked to open the way, and the king to answer when the call comes. Deliverance means room to move where pressure had narrowed the way. The call meets a presence capable of responding.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a cry from a tight place is already too late to matter; the verse places the answer at the moment of calling.
THE ROOT
הוֹשִׁיעָה
hoshiʿah
GROWS FROM
ישׁע
To be wide or spacious; by extension, to deliver by bringing out of danger into room.
“Save” in this verse is hoshiʿah. The root holds deliverance as a movement from narrowness into space. Rescue here uncovers a way forward; it does not require the person calling to create one.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the opening that the plea asks for: being brought through into room.
moshia: Deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
The one who delivers is the one who brings a person out of constriction.
יַעֲנֵנוּ
yaʿanenu
GROWS FROM
ענה
To answer or respond.
The Hebrew word beneath “hear us” carries the sense of answering us. The verse imagines hearing as response, not merely sound reaching an ear.
ALSO GROWS
maʿaneh: An answer or response
מַעֲנֶה
This noun makes explicit the response held inside the request to be heard.
wayyaʿanehu: And he answered him
וַיַּעֲנֵהוּ
This verb form shows the root as an answering act, the response the verse anticipates.
קָרְאֵנוּ
qareʾenu
GROWS FROM
קרא
To call out, summon, proclaim, or read aloud.
The word for calling belongs to a root that also names proclamation and recitation. The call is an utterance directed outward, not a thought trapped inside.
ALSO GROWS
qeriʾah: A calling or reading aloud
קְרִיאָה
This branch links the cry in the verse with spoken words made audible.
miqra: A public reading or convocation
מִקְרָא
This branch carries the same root from an individual call into a gathering that hears.
THE PATTERN
A call made in distress meets an answer that opens a way forward.
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.THE THREAD
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.Both verses use the same Hebrew verb for calling, and Psalm 118:5 makes the answer visible as a move from distress into a large place. It opens Psalm 20:9 by showing the spaciousness already carried inside its plea for deliverance.
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