What Does Psalm 69:16 Mean in the King James?
Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.
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 plea asks for God’s face to turn toward the reader on the strength of faithful love and compassion rooted in the image of the womb.
THE MEANING
This is a cry for a response and for the divine face to turn toward the reader. The request rests on good, faithful love and compassion described as abundant.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that need can exhaust compassion meets the verse’s claim that compassion is abundant.
THE ROOT
חֶסֶד
chesed
GROWS FROM
ח־ס־ד
Loyal, faithful love expressed through relationship.
“lovingkindness” in this verse is chesed. The verse calls this love good and makes it the ground of the plea. Chesed carries the sense of faithful care, so the appeal rests on a relationship marked by loyalty.
ALSO GROWS
chasad: To act loyally or show kindness.
חָסַד
The action behind chesed shows faithful love as something expressed, not merely felt.
chasid: A faithful or devoted person.
חָסִיד
This branch describes someone characterized by the same quality of loyal devotion.
רַחֲמִים
rachamim
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ם
Compassion and tender care, with a word-family association to the womb.
“tender mercies” in this verse is rachamim. The verse asks for compassion in abundance. Its root also appears in words for the womb and for being compassionate, giving this plea a bodily image of intimate, protective tenderness.
ALSO GROWS
rechem: Womb.
רֶחֶם
This shared root gives compassion an image of intimate, bodily care.
rachum: Compassionate.
רַחוּם
The same root describes the one whose nature is marked by compassion.
פְּנֵה
panah
GROWS FROM
פ־נ־ה
To turn or direct oneself toward something.
“turn” in this verse is panah. The request is for more than attention from a distance: it asks for a turning toward. The related word for “face” helps reveal the personal presence carried by this movement.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face; presence.
פָּנִים
The face is what turns toward the speaker, making the request feel relational and direct.
panah: Turn; turn toward or away.
פָּנָה
The verb names the movement requested in the verse.
THE PATTERN
The cry for a response is met by compassion described as abundant and faithful.
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.THE THREAD
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.The same racham root underlies the compassion requested here and the phrase “have compassion” in Isaiah. Isaiah’s image of a child of the womb reveals the bodily tenderness inside the word, then holds that care firm even when a human bond fails.
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