What Does Psalm 22:17 Mean in the King James?
I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon 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
The word rendered “tell” means “count,” making the body’s hidden frame an exposed tally beneath the watchers’ gaze.
THE MEANING
Your body is exposed so completely that its bones can be counted; eyes hold you in an unrelenting gaze. The verse names vulnerability without covering it: even what lies beneath the body’s surface is seen.
THE ROOT
אֲסַפֵּר
ʾasappēr
GROWS FROM
ס־פ־ר
s-p-r
Count, recount, tell.
The verb translated “tell” can mean to count or recount, so the speaker describes a body whose bones can be enumerated. Its branches connect counting with number and written record, making the exposed body seem legible to the gaze.
ALSO GROWS
mispar: Number; count.
מִסְפָּר
This branch makes clear that “tell” here can mean to enumerate each bone.
sefer: Book; scroll; written record.
סֵפֶר
A count can become a record: the body is described as fully visible, almost item by item.
עַצְמוֹתַי
atsmotai
GROWS FROM
ע־צ־ם
ʿ-ṣ-m
Bone; substance or self; the related verb means to grow strong or numerous.
The word for bones shares its root letters with words for substance or self, and with strength or abundance. The gaze reaches the body’s supporting substance, not only its surface.
ALSO GROWS
ʿetsem: Bone; substance; self or the thing itself.
עֶצֶם
The exposed bones name the body at its structural core.
ʿatsum: Mighty; numerous.
עָצוּם
The root’s strength and abundance meanings echo in the bones as the body’s supporting frame.
THE PATTERN
Bones reveal the body’s underlying reality: hidden support can be exposed to sight or raised as testimony.
All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.THE THREAD
And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.The same root ס־פ־ר (s-p-r, count or recount) stands behind “tell” here and “tell” the stars there. One verse places the sky before the gaze as a count; this one makes the body’s frame countable beneath it.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us