What Does Psalm 22:4 Mean in the King James?
Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
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
Trust is the hinge: its root carries both confidence and security, and the verse holds that reliance open until deliverance appears.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you now through a pattern of trust placed in God and deliverance received from the one trusted. Its repeated “trusted” keeps that reliance in view before the outcome arrives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that rescue is something you produce through your own strength: the verse names God, the one trusted, as the one who delivers.
THE ROOT
בָּטְחוּ
baṭəḥû
GROWS FROM
בטח
To trust, feel secure, or be confident.
The root בטח (batach, trust and security) gathers confidence and safety in one word-family. English can make “trusted” sound like an inward opinion; the Hebrew branches open it as reliance that has a place of refuge.
ALSO GROWS
mivṭāḥ: Confidence, refuge.
מִבְטָח
This branch shows trust as a place of security, not merely an opinion held in the mind.
beṭaḥ: Security, safety.
בֶּטַח
The same root names the safety that confidence rests in, deepening the verse’s repeated “trusted.”
וַתְּפַלְּטֵמוֹ
wattepalləṭēmō
GROWS FROM
פלט
To escape or slip away; in this form, to cause someone to escape or deliver them.
“delivered” in this verse is wattepalləṭēmō. The form here presents God as making them escape. Related forms name both the one who escapes and escape itself, so “deliver” carries the image of being brought out of danger.
ALSO GROWS
pālîṭ: A survivor, fugitive, or one who has escaped.
פָּלִיט
This branch names the person who comes through the danger, giving a face to the verse’s deliverance.
pəlêṭâ: Escape, deliverance, or a remnant.
פְּלֵיטָה
This branch names the escape itself: what the verse says God makes possible for those who trust.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, trust placed in God is shown as the ground from which direction and deliverance emerge.
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.And the LORD shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;THE THREAD
They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.The same trust verb returns, while the word for deliverance shifts from פלט (palat, escape or deliver) to מלט (malat, escape). The language holds trust steady while showing rescue through related forms: being delivered and escaping.
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