What Does Psalm 81:10 Mean in the King James?

I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

Psalm 81:10 · KJV

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 mouth’s widening continues the exodus: the God who brings you out of constriction also makes room in you for fullness.

THE MEANING

The LORD brings you out of what constricts you and makes room within you now. You do not manufacture fullness; the verse holds your opened capacity and God’s filling together.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that need must be hidden before it can be met: here, the open mouth is precisely the place God fills.

THE ROOT

הַרְחֵב

harḥēv

GROWS FROM

רחב

Be wide, become spacious (rāḥab).

“open wide” in this verse is harḥēv. The command uses the root of breadth and spaciousness: your mouth is to become a place with room to receive. After the LORD brings you out of constriction, this widening continues the movement toward fullness.

ALSO GROWS

rāḥāv: Wide, broad.

רָחָב

This adjective names the spacious quality that the command asks the mouth to take on.

merḥāv: A broad place, an expanse.

מֶרְחָב

The same root describes an open place, linking the widened mouth with a life made spacious.

הַמַּעַלְךָ

hammaʿăleḵā

GROWS FROM

עלה

Go up, ascend (ʿālāh).

“brought thee out” in this verse is hammaʿăleḵā. The Hebrew pictures the LORD as bringing you up from Egypt. Deliverance carries the motion of ascent, so the widening that follows belongs to a movement already underway: out of constriction and into room.

ALSO GROWS

ʿālāh: Go up, ascend.

עָלָה

The basic verb makes the upward movement within “brought thee out” audible.

heʿĕlāh: Bring up, raise.

הֶעֱלָה

This causative form shares the verse’s image of being brought upward by another.

THE PATTERN

Deliverance moves from constriction into widened capacity, where fullness can be received.

He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Psalm 18:19 · KJVRescue leads into a large place, carrying the same movement from confinement into spaciousness.

Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

Isaiah 54:2 · KJVThe command to enlarge the dwelling pictures a life with more room to hold what is coming.

O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.

2 Corinthians 6:11 · KJVAn open mouth and an enlarged heart show widened capacity as openness to another.

THE THREAD

I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.

Psalm 118:5 · KJV

“Large place” translates ⁨מֶרְחָב⁩ (merḥāv), from the same root ⁨רחב⁩ (rāḥab) as “open wide.” The word joins an opened mouth with a life brought out of distress into spaciousness.

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