What Does Psalm 68:31 Mean in the King James?

Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.

Psalm 68:31 · KJV

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 two narrows do not seal the way: nobles come out of Egypt while Cush’s hands are already running toward God.

THE MEANING

The verse holds an exit and a reach in the same present: what is enclosed in Mitzrayim comes out, and Cush’s hands hurry toward God. Constriction and distance do not close the way; movement toward God crosses both.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a life shaped by constriction is too far away to reach God.

THE ROOT

תָּרִיץ

tārîṣ

GROWS FROM

רוץ

r-w-ṣ

Run, hurry, move swiftly.

The verb behind “stretch out” pictures Cush’s hands running toward God. English gives a gesture; Hebrew gives urgency and motion, a reach already in transit.

ALSO GROWS

rāṣ: Runner; one who runs.

רָץ

The reaching hands take on the movement of a runner, not a still or distant posture.

mērōṣ: A race or course of running.

מֵרוֹץ

This branch keeps the verse’s reach inside a larger image of motion toward a destination.

מִצְרַיִם

Mitzrayim

GROWS FROM

צ־ר־ר

ṣ-r-r

Press in, bind, constrict; related forms describe narrowness and distress.

Mitzrayim carries the image of the narrows, heard as a twofold constriction. Here Egypt is more than a location: its name holds the narrowing image, while the verse makes departure imaginable from within it.

ALSO GROWS

mēṣar: A narrow place, strait, or tight spot.

מֵצַר

This branch makes the constriction carried by Mitzrayim audible in the verse’s image of coming out.

ṣārāh: Distress or trouble.

צָרָה

The same constricting word-family links narrowness with the pressure experienced inside it.

THE PATTERN

The movement toward God crosses borders: peoples at every distance enter the same turning and worship.

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.

Psalm 22:27 · KJVThe nations at the world’s edges turn toward the LORD together, widening Psalm 68’s image of distant hands reaching toward God.

Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

Isaiah 19:25 · KJVEgypt is named among God’s people alongside Assyria and Israel, so the place of constriction is included in the circle of belonging.

And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,

Acts 8:27 · KJVThe Ethiopian traveler is already oriented toward worship, echoing Cush’s movement toward God.

THE THREAD

I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.

Psalm 119:32 · KJV

The Hebrew verb for “run” here shares the root ⁨רוץ⁩ (r-w-ṣ) with the verb rendered “stretch out” in Psalm 68:31. This psalm pairs running with an enlarged heart, opening Cush’s reaching hands as movement into spaciousness.

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