What Does Psalm 69:3 Mean in the King James?
I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
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
Waiting here is not untouched calm: the eyes can be spent while expectation remains turned toward God.
THE MEANING
The voice is worn from crying out, its throat parched and its eyes spent from looking. It still waits for God, so exhaustion and expectation occupy the same present moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that real trust must feel calm or physically strong: the speaker is depleted and still waiting for God.
THE ROOT
מְיַחֵל
meyachel
GROWS FROM
יחל
yachal
To wait, hope, or expect.
English “wait” can sound like empty delay, but יחל carries waiting with the horizon of hope and expectation. The verse names that orientation without claiming the speaker feels calm.
ALSO GROWS
hochalti: I waited or hoped.
הוֹחָלְתִּי
This form appears in Psalm 130:5, where waiting for the LORD and hoping in his word are held together.
tohelet: Expectation or hope.
תּוֹחֶלֶת
This noun shows that the root can name the expectation carried through a wait.
כָּלוּ
kalu
GROWS FROM
כלה
kalah
To be completed, come to an end, or be consumed.
“fail” in this verse is kalu. The Hebrew places the eyes at their limit: they are spent, not merely malfunctioning. Their depletion makes the duration of the waiting visible in the body.
ALSO GROWS
kalah: To come to an end or be consumed.
כָּלָה
This form carries the sense of something reaching its limit, the force behind the eyes being spent.
waykhal: And he finished or completed.
וַיְכַל
The same root can describe bringing something to its endpoint, linking the eyes’ exhaustion with completion.
יָגַעְתִּי
yaga'ti
GROWS FROM
יגע
yaga
To toil, labor, or grow weary.
“weary” in this verse is yaga'ti. This is weariness with the grain of labor in it, not vague sadness. The verse lets the cry itself carry a bodily cost.
ALSO GROWS
yagea: Weary or worn from labor.
יָגֵעַ
This form makes clear that the speaker’s exhaustion is the kind that comes from exertion.
yegia: Toil or labor.
יְגִיעַ
The noun names the effort behind the root, illuminating how crying out can wear the speaker down.
THE PATTERN
Waiting on God remains an active orientation through present depletion and unseen outcomes.
I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.THE THREAD
I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.Psalm 69:3 uses מְיַחֵל (meyachel), from יחל (yachal), meaning to wait or hope. Psalm 130:5 uses the same root for hoping in God’s word, revealing that this waiting carries expectation even when the body is worn down.
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