What Does Psalm 5:2 Mean in the King James?
Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.
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 word for “cry” already means a call for help, so “unto thee will I pray” reveals where the cry is going.
THE MEANING
Your distress comes as a cry addressed to the one you name King and God, then as prayer turned directly toward him. Raw need and deliberate address belong to the same movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a distressed or unpolished voice cannot be prayer: here, the cry itself is part of the appeal to God.
THE ROOT
שַׁוְעִי
shav‘i
GROWS FROM
שׁוּעַ
sh-w-ʿ
A cry for help; an appeal for aid.
English “cry” can sound like an outburst, while שׁוּעַ names a call for help. The same root appears in the afflicted person’s cry that God hears, so the word already carries direction toward aid.
ALSO GROWS
shav'ah: A cry for help.
שַׁוְעָה
In Exodus 2:23 and Psalm 18:6, this noun names distress voiced before God; the plea in this verse belongs to that same language of appeal.
beshav'o: When he cries out.
בְּשַׁוְּעוֹ
Psalm 22:24 uses this form for the afflicted person’s cry to God, linking the act of crying with a direct appeal.
הַקְשִׁיבָה
haqshivah
GROWS FROM
קשב
q-sh-b
To attend carefully; to give focused attention.
“Hearken” can sound like merely detecting a sound, but קשב names attentive listening. The verse asks for attention turned toward a voiced plea.
ALSO GROWS
haqshivu: Attend; listen closely.
הַקְשִׁיבוּ
Proverbs 4:1 uses this form in an appeal to attend to instruction, showing the root’s sense of focused listening.
taqshiv oznekha: You attend your ear.
תַּקְשִׁיב אָזְנֶךָ
Psalm 10:17 uses the root with “ear” as God attends to the humble, joining attentive hearing with a person’s appeal.
THE PATTERN
A voiced cry directed toward God becomes prayer: distress is spoken to the one who can hear and deliver.
And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;THE THREAD
In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.“My cry” in both verses comes from the root שׁוּעַ, a call for help. Psalm 18:6 makes the movement vivid: the cry comes before God and into his ears.
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