What Does Psalm 87:6 Mean in the King James?

The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. Selah.

Psalm 87:6 · 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 register does more than count Zion’s people: it names Zion as the place where they were born.

THE MEANING

You are counted in a way that gives your belonging an origin: Zion is named as your birthplace. The line holds that origin inside God’s record, so the place that claims you is more than the place where you happen to stand. Selah leaves that claim in view.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Your earthly birthplace is the only place that can claim you. This verse names another origin in God’s record.

THE ROOT

יִסְפֹּר

yispor

GROWS FROM

ספר

s-p-r

Count, recount, or tell.

English “count” can sound like a bare tally, but ⁨ספר⁩ also carries recounting and telling, while its noun branch ⁨ספר⁩ means book or scroll. The writing that follows makes the count a recorded account of where this person belongs.

ALSO GROWS

safar: Count, recount, or tell.

סָפַר

The count can also be understood as an account that is told or recorded.

sefer: Book, scroll, or written document.

סֵפֶר

This branch links the act of counting with a written record.

בִּכְתוֹב

bichtov

GROWS FROM

כתב

k-t-b

Write or inscribe.

“write” in this verse is bichtov. The people are not only counted; they are written into the record. The root’s branches carry writing into scripts and written messages, giving the verse’s count a lasting, visible form.

ALSO GROWS

ketav: Writing or script.

כְּתָב

The people’s place in the count takes written form.

mikhtav: Letter or written message.

מִכְתָּב

This branch shows writing as something preserved and communicated.

יֻלַּד

yullad

GROWS FROM

ילד

y-l-d

Bear, beget, or bring forth.

The birth verb’s family includes both a child and ⁨מוֹלֶדֶת⁩ (moledet), meaning birth, kindred, or native land. “Born there” can therefore echo both the event of birth and the place that names one’s belonging.

ALSO GROWS

yeled: Child.

יֶלֶד

The birth verb’s family includes the person brought forth.

moledet: Birth, kindred, or native land.

מוֹלֶדֶת

This branch joins birth with the place and people one belongs to.

THE PATTERN

God’s city names belonging as both birth and inscription.

And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:

Isaiah 4:3 · KJVBeing written among the living in Jerusalem makes belonging to the city part of the person’s recorded identity.

But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Galatians 4:26 · KJVJerusalem is named as a mother, giving belonging the language of birth and origin.

And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Revelation 21:27 · KJVEntry into the city is joined to being written in its book, tying belonging to a lasting record.

THE THREAD

And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.

Psalm 87:5 · KJV

This verse uses ⁨יֻלַּד⁩ (yullad, was born), from ⁨ילד⁩ (yalad, to bear or bring forth), the same birth verb as Psalm 87:6. “This and that man” widens the belonging, and the next verse places that birth in God’s written count.

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