What Does Psalm 131:2 Mean?
Surely I level and hush my living soul, like a weaned child upon his mother; like one weaned upon me, my living soul.
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
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.THE KEY
Your living soul can remain close to its source without grasping for the nourishment it once needed.
THE MEANING
Your living soul can be quiet while remaining close to the one who nurtures it. The weaned child is still with its mother, even though nursing is no longer the way it receives from her. The image holds nearness and a changed kind of dependence together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that closeness is real only while you receive exactly what you crave in the way you expect.
THE ROOT
וְדוֹמַמְתִּי
vedomamti
GROWS FROM
דמם
d-m-m
Be silent, cease, or become still.
“hush” in this verse is vedomamti. The root describes silence or cessation, and its noun form can name waiting in stillness. The quiet here is a settling of the living self, not an escape from relationship: the child remains with its mother.
ALSO GROWS
dumiyyah: silence, stillness
דּוּמִיָּה
Psalm 62:1 uses this noun for the soul waiting in quiet before God, echoing the stillness of this verse.
yiddom: be silent, fall silent
יִדֹּם
This verbal form shows the same root as an act of becoming quiet, rather than simply describing an already quiet state.
גָּמוּל
gamul
GROWS FROM
גמל
g-m-l
Deal fully with or requite; the verb also means to wean.
“weaned child” in this verse is gamul. This word family joins weaning with language for dealing fully or requiting. The verse’s image holds a changed way of receiving together with continued closeness: the child is weaned and still rests with its mother.
ALSO GROWS
gamal: wean; deal fully with or requite
גָּמַל
The verb names the weaning that has changed how the child receives without ending the relationship pictured here.
gemul: recompense, what is done or given in return
גְּמוּל
This related word keeps the family connected to what is received or dealt out, sharpening the verse’s image of a changed mode of receiving.
נַפְשִׁי
nafshi
GROWS FROM
נפש
n-p-sh
The living self or person; the word family also includes being refreshed.
“my living soul” in this verse is nafshi. The same family speaks of the living person and of being refreshed. The thing that settles here is the whole living self, and its quiet is a form of rest.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: living soul, person
נֶפֶשׁ
The verse names the whole living self as the one being quieted, not a detachable soul alone.
yinnaphesh: be refreshed, rest
יִנָּפֵשׁ
In Exodus 23:12 this form describes being refreshed through rest, linking the living self with restoration.
THE PATTERN
The living soul settles into quiet by resting near its source, even when it is no longer grasping for immediate provision.
To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. Only toward God is my living soul hushed. From him comes my deliverance.Hush before the LORD, and wait for him in labor. Do not burn yourself because of the one who pushes through on his way, because of the man who makes schemes.Lift my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and low in heart, and you will find rest for your living souls.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. Only toward God is my living soul hushed. From him comes my deliverance.The “waiteth” here translates דּוּמִיָּה (dumiyyah, silence or stillness), from the same דמם (d-m-m, be silent or cease) root as “quieted” in Psalm 131:2. Both verses show the soul waiting in settled quiet before God, opening the image of the weaned child as rest within continued nearness.
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