What Does Psalm 54:2 Mean in the King James?
Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.
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
Prayer here is a spoken appeal: the verse asks God both to hear it and to attend to the voice forming it.
THE MEANING
Your prayer takes spoken shape before God: you ask God to hear, then to attend to the words coming from your mouth. The double appeal holds your voice within the relationship.
THE ROOT
שְׁמַע
shema
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed; hear and respond.
“Hear” in this verse is shema. The root carries listening as attention, not merely sound reaching an ear. Its branches keep hearing connected both to response and to what is received as a report.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; listen and respond.
שְׁמַע
This is the word used in the verse, making the prayer a direct request for attentive hearing.
shemuah: A report; news that has been heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root links listening with the message received, echoing the verse’s focus on spoken words.
הַאֲזִינָה
ha'azinah
GROWS FROM
אזן
Ear; listen attentively, give ear.
“give ear” in this verse is ha'azinah. The second line uses another listening verb, built from the word for ear. The Hebrew pairs the mouth that speaks with an ear asked to attend.
ALSO GROWS
ozen: Ear.
אֹזֶן
This concrete body word sits inside the request to give ear to the speaker’s words.
oznayim: Ears.
אָזְנַיִם
The plural form makes clear that the second appeal turns attention toward hearing itself.
THE PATTERN
Prayer is voiced as an appeal to a God who hears and responds.
The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:THE THREAD
The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.“Heareth” comes from שָׁמַע (shama, hear), the same root as “Hear” in this verse. Psalm 34 joins that hearing to deliverance, showing what attentive hearing can open into.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us