What Does Psalm 55:7 Mean in the King James?
Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.
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 escape imagined here is not just a change of place but a widening of distance until the speaker can lodge beyond reach.
THE MEANING
When pressure crowds you, your mind reaches for distance: to wander far away and stay in the wilderness. The verse lets that longing remain unresolved; the imagined refuge is still a wish, not yet a settled peace.
THE ROOT
אַרְחִיק
ʾarḥîq
GROWS FROM
רחק
To be or become distant; to put far away.
“far off” in this verse is ʾarḥîq. The phrase carries distance inside its verb: the speaker imagines becoming far from what presses in. English can make “wander” sound aimless, but this root gives the longing a clear direction, away.
ALSO GROWS
raḥoq: Far, distant
רָחוֹק
The wish for escape is expressed as distance itself.
merḥaq: A distance; a remote place
מֶרְחָק
This branch gives the longing an imagined destination beyond what feels close.
אָלִין
ʾālîn
GROWS FROM
לון
To lodge or spend the night.
The word translated “remain” carries the texture of lodging through the night. The wilderness is imagined as a place where the speaker can stay outside the pressure, at least for a time.
ALSO GROWS
lîn: To lodge; to spend the night
לִין
The verse imagines refuge as a place to stay, not simply a direction of flight.
melûnāh: A lodge or shelter
מְלוּנָה
This branch makes the lodging image tangible: the wilderness holds a temporary shelter.
THE PATTERN
Under pressure, distance and solitude become imaginable as shelter.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.THE THREAD
He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.Psalm 55:7’s אַרְחִיק (ʾarḥîq, “I would go far”) and Job’s “far from me” share the root רחק (r-ḥ-q; raḥaq), meaning to be or become distant. Here distance is desired as refuge; in Job, it names the pain of separation.
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