What Does Psalm 72:16 Mean in the King James?
There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
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 locates a community’s flourishing in a handful of grain growing where abundance seems least likely.
THE MEANING
A handful of grain grows on the mountain heights, its fruit sways like Lebanon, and the people of the city bloom like grass. Provision in the earth becomes flourishing among people.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Flourishing requires abundant resources and easy ground. Here, a handful grows even at a mountain’s summit.
THE ROOT
וְיָצִיצוּ
wə-yāṣîṣû
GROWS FROM
צוץ
tsuts
To blossom, put forth a bloom, or shine forth.
The Hebrew word translated “flourish” pictures people coming into bloom. The city’s flourishing is shown as visible growth, like grass emerging across the earth.
ALSO GROWS
tsits: Blossom; flower.
צִיץ
This noun names the visible bloom from the same root, giving “flourish” the concrete image of life coming into flower.
wayyāṣēṣ: It blossomed; it put forth a bloom.
וַיָּצֵץ
In the account of Aaron’s rod, this verb describes growth becoming visible; here, the same movement describes a city’s people.
פִּרְיוֹ
piryō
GROWS FROM
פרה
parah
To bear fruit, be fruitful, or increase.
The verse links the earth’s yield with the city’s blooming: the fruit is not merely present but part of a movement toward abundance. Its image of growth carries from the mountain crop into the life of the people.
ALSO GROWS
peri: Fruit; produce.
פְּרִי
This is the noun used for the mountain’s yield, the visible result of growth.
parah: To bear fruit; to be fruitful.
פָּרָה
The verb names the increase implied by the fruit: growth that produces more life.
THE PATTERN
A living source turns small beginnings into visible abundance that reaches beyond itself.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.THE THREAD
He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.Isaiah uses the same root צוץ (tsuts, blossom) when it says Israel shall blossom. Both verses picture flourishing as plant growth that becomes visible and spreads into fruit.
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