What Does Psalm 68:20 Mean in the King James?
He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.
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 calls death a place with exits, and says those exits belong to God.
THE MEANING
Your encounter with death is not beyond the reach of God’s deliverance: God is the God of deliverances, and the exits from death belong to the Lord. The verse places both deliverance and the way out from death within God’s keeping now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Death is a sealed boundary beyond which no way out can belong to God.
THE ROOT
לְמוֹשָׁעוֹת
le-moshaʿot
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliverance: bringing out of constriction into spaciousness.
“salvation” in this verse is le-moshaʿot. The Hebrew word מוֹשָׁעוֹת (moshaʿot, deliverances) is plural, set beside the plural תּוֹצָאוֹת (totsaʿot, exits). The verse pairs deliverances with exits, holding the way out from death within God’s keeping.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuʿah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This branch shares the seed of the verse’s word for deliverances, showing salvation as being brought out.
moshiaʿ: Deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one who brings deliverance; here, God is named as its source.
תּוֹצָאוֹת
totsaʿot
GROWS FROM
י־צ־א
y-ts-ʾ
To go out, come forth, or emerge.
What KJV renders “issues” is תּוֹצָאוֹת (totsaʿot), meaning exits or outgoings. Its root is the verb “to go out,” so the line names exits from death as belonging to the Lord.
ALSO GROWS
yatsaʾ: To go out or emerge
יָצָא
This verb is the seed behind “issues,” making the verse’s language of exits concrete.
motsaʾ: An exit, going out, or source
מוֹצָא
This related form shows how the root can name both a way out and the point something comes from.
THE PATTERN
God’s deliverance appears as an opening out from death’s hold, with the way out belonging to God.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:THE THREAD
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.“Brought them out” translates a form of יצא (yatsaʾ), the same root behind תּוֹצָאוֹת (totsaʿot), “issues” or exits. Psalm 107:14 shows that root in motion: God brings people out of darkness and death’s shadow.
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