What Does Psalm 119:82 Mean?
My eyes run out for your word, saying, When will you comfort me?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?THE KEY
The eyes are spent watching for the utterance, and the speaker’s “saying” grows from the same root as that word: promise and plea meet in speech.
THE MEANING
Your eyes are spent watching for the word, and the question of when consolation will come is on your lips now. Expectation and weariness occupy the same moment; longing does not erase the strain of waiting.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that genuine expectation should leave you untouched by exhaustion dissolves here: the eyes fixed on the word are themselves worn down by waiting.
THE ROOT
אִמְרָתֶךָ
imratekha
GROWS FROM
אָמַר
amar
to say, speak, utter
“Word” is אִמְרָה (imrah, utterance), and the later “saying” is לֵאמֹר (le’mor, saying); both grow from אמר (amar, to say). The verse places the awaited utterance and the question on the reader’s lips in the same family of speech.
ALSO GROWS
amar: to say, speak
אָמַר
This verb is the seed behind both “word” and “saying” in the verse.
le'mor: saying; to say
לֵאמֹר
This form appears in the verse itself, linking the awaited word to the question that follows.
תְּנַחֲמֵנִי
tenachameni
GROWS FROM
נחם
naḥam
to comfort or console; in other forms, to relent or regret
The root נחם appears here in a form meaning “comfort,” while other forms mean “relent” or “regret.” That shared root lets consolation carry a shade of being moved in response, while the verse leaves its timing open in the question.
ALSO GROWS
neḥamah: consolation, comfort
נֶחָמָה
This noun makes explicit the consolation the speaker longs for.
niḥam: he relented, regretted
נִחַם
This form shares the root with “comfort,” giving consolation a connection to a change of stance.
כָּלוּ
kalu
GROWS FROM
כלה
kalah
to come to an end, be complete, or be consumed
“run out” in this verse is kalu. כָּלוּ (kalu) pictures the eyes as spent or consumed. The root opens “fail” to the image of sight worn down by waiting, rather than a fault in the one who waits.
ALSO GROWS
nikhlah: be consumed, used up
נִכְלָה
This form carries the same sense of being spent that colors the eyes in this verse.
killayon: consumption, wasting away
כִּלָּיוֹן
This noun extends the root’s image of reaching an end or being used up.
THE PATTERN
Waiting for divine comfort can hold expectation and exhaustion together.
I am worn out from my crying. My throat burns dry, and my eyes run out while I wait for my God.But those who wait upon the LORD exchange their strength; they rise on wings like eagles; they run and do not tire; they walk and do not faint.But if we hope for what we do not see, then we wait for it by bearing up under it.THE THREAD
I am worn out from my crying. My throat burns dry, and my eyes run out while I wait for my God.Both verses use כָּלוּ (kalu, “are spent” or “consumed”) for the eyes, so “fail” carries the image of sight used up in waiting. Psalm 69 names the wait directly, “while I wait for my God”, and makes the exhaustion here recognizable as part of that same long gaze.
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