What Does Psalm 85:2 Mean in the King James?
Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
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
Forgiveness is pictured as a burden lifted and a wrong covered: the thing is named, then no longer left exposed.
THE MEANING
Your crookedness is lifted from you, and your missing is covered. The verse holds removal and covering together: what weighs on you is carried away, and what could expose you is no longer left bare.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a named wrong must remain your defining condition is undone: the verse names the crookedness and missing, then shows them lifted and covered.
THE ROOT
נָשָׂאתָ
nāśāʾtā
GROWS FROM
נשא
נָשָׂא (nāśāʾ): lift, carry, bear.
The verb נָשָׂאתָ (nāśāʾtā, you have lifted or carried) gives “forgiven” the image of a burden taken up. Forgiveness here changes what the people carry; it does not pretend the wrong was never there.
ALSO GROWS
nāśûʾ: lifted, carried, borne
נָשׂוּא
This form retains the root’s consonants and names what is borne; it makes the verse’s forgiveness sound like a burden lifted.
nāśîʾ: leader, prince; one raised up
נָשִׂיא
This word belongs to the same root family and extends the sense of lifting from carrying a burden to being raised up.
כִּסִּיתָ
kissîtā
GROWS FROM
כסה
כָּסָה (kāsāh): cover, conceal.
כִּסִּיתָ (kissîtā, you covered) keeps the concrete image of placing a covering over what remains there. Beside the lifted burden, the verse shows the wrong no longer left bare or exposed.
ALSO GROWS
kāsāh: to cover, conceal
כָּסָה
This is the verb’s root form; its direct sense of covering remains present in the verse’s image.
mikhseh: covering
מִכְסֶה
This noun uses the same root consonants for a covering, making visible the thing implied by the act of covering.
חַטָּאתָם
ḥaṭṭāʾtām
GROWS FROM
חטא
חָטָא (ḥāṭāʾ): miss, err, go wrong.
חַטָּאתָם (ḥaṭṭāʾtām, their sin) carries the root sense of missing or going wrong. The verse names what went wrong, then says it is covered.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: to miss, err, commit a wrong
חָטָא
The verb makes the root’s sense of missing visible inside the English word “sin.”
ḥaṭṭāʾt: sin, missing; in some contexts, a sin offering
חַטָּאת
This noun carries the same root consonants, keeping the sense of missing within the verse’s phrase “all their sin.”
THE PATTERN
Restoration is pictured as wrongdoing lifted away, cast beyond reach, or covered so it no longer remains exposed.
A Psalm of David, Maschil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David, Maschil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.Psalm 32:1 repeats the same Hebrew roots: נשא (nāśāʾ, lift or carry) under “forgiven,” and כסה (kāsāh, cover) under “covered.” The parallel makes the paired image in Psalm 85:2 visible: the burden is lifted and its exposure is covered.
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