What Does Psalm 77:20 Mean in the King James?
Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
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
Exodus names Moses through the words “I drew him out of the water,” and here that drawn-out one becomes the human hand through which a whole people is led.
THE MEANING
You are part of a people being led together, with guidance taking the shape of a flock’s care. The verse names Moses and Aaron as human hands through which that leading happens; the surrounding verses describe a way opened through the waters. This is guidance through what seemed impassable, shared by the whole flock.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that divine guidance must bypass human hands: this verse names Moses and Aaron as the means through which the people are led.
THE ROOT
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משׁה
Draw out, pull out.
Exodus connects Moses’s name to the words “I drew him out of the water.” Here, the one drawn out becomes the human hand through which a whole flock is led, echoing the waters and opened way in the verses just before this one.
ALSO GROWS
māšâ: To draw out.
מָשָׁה
This root meaning gives Moses’s name its water-linked wordplay and echoes the psalm’s account of the waters.
məšîtihû: “I drew him out” (Exodus 2:10).
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
The phrase that explains Moses’s name illuminates how the one drawn out is now named as the hand guiding the people.
נָחִיתָ
nāḥîtā
GROWS FROM
נחה
Guide, lead, conduct.
The Hebrew verb presents leading as conducting a people along a way, like a flock under guidance. The same root appears in direct appeals to be led, joining this collective journey to the reader’s own need for guidance.
ALSO GROWS
neḥēnî: “Lead me” (Psalm 5:8).
נְחֵנִי
The same root turns the flock’s collective leading into a personal request for guidance.
tanḥēnî: “Lead me” (Psalm 31:3).
תַּנְחֵנִי
This form also uses the root נחה, showing the same act of being conducted along a way.
THE PATTERN
Divine guidance takes the shape of shepherding: a people is led along a way through presence and care.
And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.THE THREAD
And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.Exodus connects Moses’s name to “I drew him out of the water.” In Psalm 77, the one drawn out becomes the human hand through which a whole flock is led, after the surrounding verses have described the waters opening a way.
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