What Does Psalm 123:3 Mean?
Bend toward us, O LORD, bend toward us, for we are filled beyond measure with contempt.
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
Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.THE KEY
The repeated plea for favor meets a people already filled to excess with contempt.
THE MEANING
The reader’s voice names contempt as something that has filled the shared “us” to excess, and turns toward the LORD with the same plea twice. Favor is asked for while the contempt is still present; the verse gives neither experience a smaller name.
THE ROOT
חָנֵּנוּ
ḥonnēnû
GROWS FROM
חנן
To show favor, to be gracious.
“bend toward us” in this verse is ḥonnēnû. The repeated verb asks the LORD to turn favor toward “us.” Its repetition lets the plea persist alongside the contempt; the speakers do not have to conceal what fills them before asking.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor.
חֵן
This related word makes the appeal sound like a request for favor directed toward the speakers.
ḥannûn: Gracious, favoring.
חַנּוּן
This form describes the quality the repeated plea calls upon amid the contempt.
שָׂבַעְנוּ
śāvaʿnû
GROWS FROM
שבע
To be sated or filled to capacity.
“filled” in this verse is śāvaʿnû. The verse pictures contempt as something the speakers have had their fill of. This language gives the pressure a measure: it has reached fullness, not merely touched them.
ALSO GROWS
śōvaʿ: Satiety, fullness.
שֹׂבַע
This noun echoes the image of contempt filling the speakers to capacity.
śāvēaʿ: Sated, full.
שָׂבֵעַ
This related form sharpens the verse’s image of being filled beyond what can be ignored.
THE PATTERN
A cry can name its need directly and approach for mercy while the need remains.
Favor me, O Lord, for to you I call out all the day.Let us therefore draw near, with open speech, to the throne of favor, that we may receive compassion, and find favor to help in the right moment.THE THREAD
Favor me, O Lord, for to you I call out all the day.Both verses use חנן (ḥ-n-n), the root of showing favor: here the plea repeats because contempt has filled the speakers; in Psalm 86:3 the same appeal rises as a daily cry. The shared root lets favor be heard as something sought within pressure, not apart from it.
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