What Does Psalm 31:8 Mean in the King James?

And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.

Psalm 31:8 · KJV

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 enemy’s reach is not the boundary of your life: the LORD sets your feet in widening space.

THE MEANING

The pressure may still be real, but it does not get the final claim on your ground. The LORD sets your feet in ⁨מֶרְחָב⁩ (merḥav, spacious breadth), where movement is possible.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This verse undoes the lie that being threatened means you are already trapped.

THE ROOT

מֶרְחָב

merḥav

GROWS FROM

רחב

r-ḥ-b

To widen; to be broad or spacious.

“Large room” can sound like a bounded interior, but ⁨מֶרְחָב⁩ (merḥav, spacious breadth) points to open ground. The verse’s movement from not being shut in to having your feet set in breadth makes deliverance tangible as room to move.

ALSO GROWS

raḥav: To widen; to become spacious.

רָחַב

The verb carries motion inside “large room”: the verse presents breadth as something opening around your feet.

reḥov: A street or open square.

רְחוֹב

This branch shows the root’s breadth as walkable public space, echoing the image of feet set where they can move.

THE PATTERN

God answers constriction by opening space for a person’s steps, way, and heart.

I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.

Psalm 118:5 · KJVThe cry rises from distress, and the answer is being set in the same spacious place named here.

He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Psalm 18:19 · KJVDeliverance takes the shape of being brought out into a large place, where the former confinement no longer defines the ground.

O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.

2 Corinthians 6:11 · KJVThe widening reaches inward too: an enlarged heart has more room to receive and make space for others.

THE THREAD

I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.

Psalm 118:5 · KJV

This verse repeats the Hebrew noun ⁨מֶרְחָב⁩ (merḥav, spacious place) behind “large room,” pairing it with a cry from distress. The answer is not only rescue from a hand; it is being set where the feet have room.

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