What Does Psalm 134:2 Mean?
Lift up your hands in the set-apart place, and bless the LORD.
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
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.THE KEY
The blessing lifts the hands while its root carries the image of a bent knee, joining elevation and humility in one gesture toward the LORD.
THE MEANING
Your hands are raised in a space set apart for the LORD, and your blessing gives that orientation a voice. The root beneath “bless” carries the image of bending the knee, joining an upward gesture with a posture of humility. The sanctuary is a place set apart where your whole body turns toward the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that blessing is only speech: here it includes raised hands, and its root carries the posture of a bent knee.
THE ROOT
בָּרֲכוּ
barakhu
GROWS FROM
בָּרַךְ
Bless; the root carries the image of bending the knee.
“bless the LORD” in this verse is barakhu. English makes blessing sound like words alone, but this root carries the body’s bend. Beside the lifted hands, it brings both reaching upward and bending low into the verse’s act of praise.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: knee
בֶּרֶךְ
The knee makes the bodily image inside “bless” visible.
berakhah: blessing
בְּרָכָה
This noun shares the root, holding the blessing together with its image of a bent knee.
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קָדַשׁ
Set apart; marked as distinct.
“set-apart place” in this verse is qodesh. “Sanctuary” sounds like a building, while qodesh also names what is set apart. The place is defined by its belonging to the LORD, not only by its walls.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: set apart
קָדוֹשׁ
It carries the same root into a description of what is distinct and devoted to God.
miqdash: sanctuary
מִקְדָּשׁ
This branch names the set-apart place itself.
שְׂאוּ
se'u
GROWS FROM
נָשָׂא
Lift, carry, bear.
“lift up” in this verse is se'u. The English phrase emphasizes upward motion, while nasa also holds the sense of carrying and bearing. The lifted hands belong to a wider movement of bearing something toward the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
massa: burden, load
מַשָּׂא
A burden is something borne, revealing the carrying sense beneath “lift up.”
nasi: leader, prince; one elevated
נָשִׂיא
This branch carries the root’s upward movement into the idea of elevation.
THE PATTERN
Turning toward the LORD takes bodily form through raised hands and bowed posture.
So I bless you while I live, and I lift my palms in your nature.I will therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up set-apart hands, without anger and divided reasoning.Enter, let us bow down and kneel before the face of the LORD who makes us.THE THREAD
So I bless you while I live, and I lift my palms in your nature.This verse repeats the roots נָשָׂא (nasa, lift and carry) and בָּרַךְ (barakh, bless, with the image of a bent knee). Their order flips, revealing lifted hands and blessing as one bodily orientation toward the LORD.
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