What Does Psalm 25:13 Mean in the King James?
His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.
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
Your living self lodges in good, while the future carried by your descendants inherits the earth.
THE MEANING
Your living self is promised a place to lodge in good, and your descendants are promised the earth as inheritance. Present well-being and future belonging stand together in this assurance.
THE ROOT
תָּלִין בְּטוֹב
talin beṭov
GROWS FROM
לון
l-w-n
Lodge or spend the night.
The Hebrew line shapes “dwell at ease” as lodging “in good.” Ease becomes a place the living self can stay, not only a passing feeling.
ALSO GROWS
lun: To lodge or spend the night.
לוּן
This verb carries the sense of dwelling overnight found in the verse.
malon: A lodging place or inn.
מָלוֹן
This related word makes the image of good as a dwelling place more concrete.
נַפְשׁוֹ
nafsho
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
The living self or person; a related verbal form refers to refreshment.
Here “soul” names the living self, and the same root family includes a verb for being refreshed. The promise reaches the whole person, not an isolated inner part.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: A living soul, person, or self.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word for the one who finds a dwelling in good.
naphash: To be refreshed.
נָפַשׁ
This related verb echoes the rest implied by the living self dwelling in good.
זַרְעוֹ
zar'o
GROWS FROM
זרע
z-r-ʿ
Sow; seed.
The root holds seed and sowing together, while “seed” can name descendants. The verse pictures inheritance as a future already carried in the present generation.
ALSO GROWS
zeraʿ: Seed or offspring.
זֶרַע
This noun names both what is planted and, in this verse, descendants.
zoreʿa: One who sows.
זֹרֵעַ
The related word for a sower links the descendants’ image to the act of planting.
THE PATTERN
The land appears as inherited belonging, a future life can receive and inhabit.
The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.THE THREAD
Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.The verb translated “refreshed” comes from the same Hebrew root family as “soul” in Psalm 25:13. Exodus applies that refreshment to people and animals alike, giving the Psalm’s living self dwelling in good the texture of actual rest.
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