What Does Psalm 95:10 Mean in the King James?
Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:
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 heart’s wandering runs so deep that the way itself is no longer known.
THE MEANING
The grief here is not over one mistaken turn, but over a heart that keeps straying until the path becomes unfamiliar. Time can pass beside the way without the reader coming to know it from within.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Spending a long time near a path does not automatically mean the heart knows it.
THE ROOT
תֹּעֵי
to'ei
GROWS FROM
תעה
To wander, stray, or lose one’s way.
The form translated “err” depicts wandering, not a single miscalculation. Isaiah 53:6 uses this same root for sheep gone astray, linking the heart’s inner drift to departure from a path.
ALSO GROWS
ta'ah: To wander or stray.
תָּעָה
This verb shows that the heart’s error is a movement away from the path.
ta'inu: We have wandered or gone astray.
תָּעִינוּ
Isaiah uses this form for sheep gone astray, echoing the wandering named here.
יָדְעוּ
yada'u
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, perceive, or recognize through encounter.
“known” in this verse is yada'u. Knowing here is more than holding information: the verse says the wandering heart has not come to know God’s ways. The contrast is between a named path and the lived recognition that would make it familiar.
ALSO GROWS
da'at: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root names knowledge that the verse says is absent.
yodea: One who knows.
יוֹדֵעַ
This form makes the root’s knowing personal: it describes someone who recognizes or knows.
דְרָכָי
derakhay
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread or step; a path is a way that is trodden.
The word translated “ways” carries the image of a path made by walking. The verse describes a heart that has not come to recognize the way by knowing its course.
ALSO GROWS
derek: A way, path, or journey.
דֶּרֶךְ
This is the singular form behind “ways,” making the image of a path explicit.
darak: To tread or step.
דָּרַךְ
This verb from the same root shows a way as a track made by footsteps.
THE PATTERN
When the heart wanders, the way can remain before it while going unrecognized.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.And the way of peace have they not known:THE THREAD
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.The Hebrew תֹּעֵי (to’ei, straying) here and תָּעִינוּ (ta’inu, gone astray) in Isaiah share the root תעה (ta’ah, to wander). The echo makes the error a wandering of the heart from the path, not merely a single mistake.
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