What Does Psalm 73:7 Mean in the King James?
Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
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 Hebrew says they “pass beyond the images of the heart,” turning abundance into a boundary the imagination itself cannot hold.
THE MEANING
You see fullness at the body and then at the level of imagination: their eyes bulge with fatness, and their abundance passes beyond what the heart can picture. Possessions can exceed desire’s horizon without making the heart whole.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that getting everything the heart can imagine will make the heart whole dissolves here: desire is surpassed, but the verse names only swelling abundance.
THE ROOT
עָבְרוּ
ʿāḇərū
GROWS FROM
עָבַר
ʿ-b-r
To cross, pass over, or go beyond.
“more than heart could wish” in this verse is ʿāḇərū. The verb rendered “they have more than” means “they pass beyond.” The line pictures abundance crossing the heart’s imagined limit, not merely satisfying its wishes.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāḇar: To cross, pass over, or pass through.
עָבַר
This basic verb of movement remains underneath the English description of having more than one could wish.
ʿēḇer: Beyond, across, or the other side.
עֵבֶר
This related form keeps the spatial sense of crossing a boundary that the English phrase leaves implicit.
THE PATTERN
Possessions can exceed a person’s desire without satisfying or making the heart whole.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.THE THREAD
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.Genesis uses the same root for “passed over” the Jordan, then places one staff beside two camps. Here that crossing moves inward: abundance passes beyond the heart’s imagined horizon.
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