What Does Psalm 72:3 Mean in the King James?
The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.
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
Here peace is wholeness carried into the people’s life through alignment.
THE MEANING
The high places carry wholeness toward the people, and the hills are joined to alignment. The verse speaks of shared life made whole through right order.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that a people can possess wholeness while the order holding them together is out of alignment.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
To be complete or whole, and to make whole.
“peace” in this verse is shalom. Shalom carries the sense of wholeness, not just quiet. Its root family also reaches from what is complete to what is made good or repaid, giving wholeness a restorative, relational depth.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
It shows that the peace carried to the people is a state of wholeness.
shillem: Repay, make restitution
שִׁלֵּם
This branch links wholeness with making good what is owed or damaged.
צְדָקָה
tsedaqah
GROWS FROM
צדק
Rightness, justice, alignment.
The hills are joined to alignment, so righteousness is not an abstract virtue detached from the landscape. It is the ordering through which wholeness reaches the people.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness, justice
צֶדֶק
It shows the same root’s sense of right order beneath the verse’s righteousness.
tsaddiq: A righteous or aligned person
צַדִּיק
This branch brings alignment into the life of a person, as the verse brings it into the life of a people.
יִשְׂאוּ
yiśśəʾû
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear.
“bring” in this verse is yiśśəʾû. The Hebrew verb gives the mountains the action of bearing or carrying. The verse pictures wholeness as something the high places carry toward the people.
ALSO GROWS
massa: A burden or load
מַשָּׂא
The shared root joins carrying with what is carried; here, the mountains bear wholeness.
nasi: A prince or leader, one lifted up
נָשִׂיא
This branch echoes elevation and authority in the image of mountains bearing wholeness to the people.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness becomes public where shared life is set in right alignment.
And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.THE THREAD
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.The same two roots meet here: alignment and wholeness are pictured as kissing. Psalm 72 stretches that connection across the landscape, with the high places bearing wholeness to the people.
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