What Does Psalm 40:6 Mean in the King James?
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
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 Hebrew says God dug open the ears, making the body’s capacity to hear the offering ritual cannot replace.
THE MEANING
The reader encounters a God who does not delight in an offering standing in for reception. The ears are dug open as bodily space for hearing; the verse centers the capacity to receive and answer. Devotion takes the shape of a responsive life, not ritual alone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that an outward offering can compensate for an inwardly closed ear.
THE ROOT
כָּרִיתָ
karita
GROWS FROM
כָּרָה
to dig, excavate, or hollow out
The KJV’s “opened” is more earthy in Hebrew: the ears are dug for the speaker. The image makes listening a bodily capacity, excavated as receiving space; the verse pivots from what is placed on an altar to what can hear.
ALSO GROWS
karah: to dig or excavate
כָּרָה
This is the verb’s basic image beneath “opened.”
koreh: one who digs
כֹּרֶה
It keeps the image physical: a receiving space is made by excavation.
חָפַצְתָּ
chaphatsta
GROWS FROM
חפץ
to desire, take pleasure in, or delight
English “desire” can sound like bare preference, but this root also carries delight and pleasure. The contrast concerns what God takes pleasure in: ritual does not replace a receiving ear.
ALSO GROWS
chafets: desiring or taking delight
חָפֵץ
This verb form gives “didst not desire” the shade of not taking pleasure in the offering.
chephets: delight, pleasure, or something desired
חֵפֶץ
This noun makes the root’s language of pleasure visible beneath the verse’s contrast.
THE PATTERN
An offering cannot substitute for a life made receptive to God.
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.THE THREAD
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:Hebrews carries this Psalm in the striking form “a body hast thou prepared me,” where Psalm 40’s Hebrew says, “mine ears hast thou opened.” The dug ear and prepared body bring listening into the body’s whole capacity to receive and answer. The Psalm’s contrast reaches beyond what is placed on an altar to what the body is prepared to embody.
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