What Does Psalm 59:15 Mean in the King James?
Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.
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 pairs an unsated appetite with lingering complaint: hunger keeps the body moving, and lack keeps the mouth speaking.
THE MEANING
You encounter a severe wish: let them keep roaming for food, and let their unmet hunger issue in complaint. The verse shows a repeating condition, movement toward food without fullness, followed by murmuring. It does not soften the speaker’s desire for their distress.
THE ROOT
וַיָּלִינוּ
wayyālînû
GROWS FROM
לון
lûn
To lodge or pass the night; also to murmur or complain.
“grudge” in this verse is wayyālînû. The root can name lodging through the night and also murmuring or complaint. Here, grievance is bound to an appetite that remains unmet, making the complaint feel lingering rather than incidental.
ALSO GROWS
lîn: To lodge or pass the night.
לִין
This neighboring sense lends a lingering image to the root without implying literal overnight lodging in this verse.
telunah: Murmuring or complaint.
תְּלוּנָה
This noun from the same root makes explicit the complaint carried by the verse’s word “grudge.”
THE PATTERN
When hunger remains unfilled, the search keeps moving and dissatisfaction becomes complaint.
Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.THE THREAD
And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?The Hebrew word translated “grudge” here belongs to the same root as “murmurings” and “murmur” in Exodus 16:7. There, hunger and complaint share the scene; the root makes the complaint in Psalm 59 sound like the audible continuation of unmet appetite.
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