What Does Psalm 135:14 Mean?
For the LORD judges his people, and relents concerning his servants.
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
For the LORD will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants.THE KEY
The Hebrew word rendered “repent” also carries the sense of comfort, holding the LORD’s judgment and his compassionate turn toward his servants together.
THE MEANING
The LORD judges his people and turns toward his servants with compassion. For the reader, being judged does not mean being abandoned or beyond comfort.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that God’s judgment means he has turned against those who belong to him: the verse holds judgment and care for his servants in the same sentence.
THE ROOT
יִתְנַחֵם
yitnaḥēm
GROWS FROM
נחם
To comfort or console; in forms used here, to relent or be moved to compassion.
“relents” in this verse is yitnaḥēm. English separates this root into “comfort” and “repent” or “relent,” while Hebrew keeps them within the same word family. Here, the LORD’s response after judgment carries the same root that can speak of comfort.
ALSO GROWS
naḥamû: Comfort, console.
נַחֲמוּ
The same root can describe comfort offered to the LORD’s people, revealing a thread between his response and their relief.
wayyinnāḥem: Relented, was moved to compassion.
וַיִּנָּחֶם
This form appears in Exodus 32:14, where the LORD relents concerning his people, echoing the movement in this verse.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s judgment does not erase his compassion toward those who belong to him.
He does not contend forever, nor hold his anger for the ages.In a flood of anger, in a blink, I hid my face from you, but with faithful love of the ages I will show you compassion, says the LORD your Redeemer.Look, we count them flourishing who remain under it. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the end of the LORD, for the LORD is very tender in his inward parts, and moved to groan.THE THREAD
And the LORD relented from the harm he had spoken of doing to his people.The verb translated “repented” comes from the same נחם (naḥam) root as “repent himself” in Psalm 135:14. In both verses, the root describes the LORD relenting concerning his people, while its other uses carry the sense of comfort.
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