What Does Psalm 34:17 Mean in the King James?
The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
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 verse places the aligned person inside real distress, where the cry is heard and becomes a passage out.
THE MEANING
You can be aligned and still feel pressed in; distress does not erase your alignment. When you cry, the LORD hears you and delivers you from every constriction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a righteous life is a life without trouble: distress can surround you without disproving your alignment.
THE ROOT
צָרוֹת
tsarot
GROWS FROM
צרר
tsarar
To bind, press in, or be narrow and distressed.
The word translated “troubles” is צָרוֹת (tsarot), from צרר (tsarar), which carries the sense of pressing in or binding. English can make distress sound like a list of problems; the Hebrew image is narrowed space, so deliverance is movement out of constriction.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, constricted.
צָר
It makes the verse’s trouble a narrowing, not an abstract inconvenience.
tsarah: Distress, trouble.
צָרָה
This singular form shows how the same root names the experience of being pressed in.
יַצִּילֵם
yatsilem
GROWS FROM
נצל
natsal
To snatch away, rescue, or deliver.
“delivereth” in this verse is yatsilem. יַצִּילֵם (yatsilem, he delivers them) comes from נצל (natsal, to rescue or snatch away), picturing deliverance as being pulled out of danger. The rescue removes what holds you in; wholeness is not something the trouble must supply.
ALSO GROWS
natsal: To snatch away, rescue.
נָצַל
The root makes deliverance an active drawing out from danger.
hatsalah: Deliverance, rescue.
הַצָּלָה
This noun names the rescue as the result of being drawn out.
צַדִּיקִים
tsaddiqim
GROWS FROM
צדק
tsadaq
To be right or just; to be in alignment.
צַדִּיקִים (tsaddiqim, righteous ones) comes from צדק (tsadaq, to be right or aligned). The word describes alignment, not a life untouched by pressure: in this verse, the aligned cry out.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Justice, rightness, alignment.
צֶדֶק
It shows the quality behind the person called righteous.
tsedaqah: Justice or righteousness expressed in right order.
צְדָקָה
It carries alignment into the way life is set right.
THE PATTERN
A cry from a confined place is heard by God and answered with deliverance.
Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.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.Psalm 118:5 echoes the צר (tsar, narrow) sound in צָרוֹת (tsarot, troubles), then answers it with מֶרְחָב (merchav, broad space). It makes the rescue in Psalm 34 visible as a move from pressure into spaciousness.
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