What Does Psalm 136:21 Mean?
And gives their land as a holding, for his faithful love reaches to the ages.
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
And gave their land for an heritage: for his mercy endureth for ever:THE KEY
The giving creates a place of belonging, held by faithful love that does not wear out.
THE MEANING
The land is given as an inheritance: a tangible place to belong, not one the receiver creates. For you now, the verse holds belonging within faithful love that outlasts the moment of receiving.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Belonging must be earned or built before it can be received; here, the place is given as a gift.
THE ROOT
נַחֲלָה
naḥălāh
GROWS FROM
נחל
n-ḥ-l
To inherit or take possession; as a noun, an inheritance or allotted possession.
“holding” in this verse is naḥălāh. The word points to more than a legacy remembered: it is a portion received and held as one’s own. The verse joins that belonging to a gift, the land is given as an inheritance.
ALSO GROWS
nāḥal: To inherit or take possession.
נָחַל
The verb shows inheritance as receiving and possessing a portion, not merely remembering what came before.
hinḥîl: To cause someone to inherit; to grant as an inheritance.
הִנְחִיל
This form illuminates the giving in the verse: the giver places a possession into the receiver’s keeping.
וַיִּתֵּן
vayyitten
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“gives” in this verse is vayyitten. The root can describe giving and placing: what is given becomes something set into another’s keeping. Beside “inheritance,” it makes the gift a place of belonging rather than a passing transfer.
ALSO GROWS
mattānāh: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
The related noun makes the gift aspect of the land explicit.
nātûn: Given or placed.
נָתוּן
This form carries the sense of something set into another’s possession, echoing the inheritance in the verse.
חֶסֶד
ḥesed
GROWS FROM
חסד
ḥ-s-d
Faithful love; loyal kindness expressed in action.
“for his faithful love reaches to the ages” in this verse is ḥesed. Chesed carries the sense of faithful love beneath the verse’s word “mercy.” The refrain locates the gift within a love that remains, so belonging does not rest on the moment of giving alone.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsîd: A faithful or loyal person.
חָסִיד
This related word describes someone marked by the loyalty that chesed expresses.
ḥāsad: To act loyally or show kindness.
חָסַד
The verb presents faithful love as action, illuminating the enduring care behind the gift.
THE PATTERN
Inheritance is received as a gift, and its belonging rests in a love that endures.
To drive out nations from before you, greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day.Saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan, the measuring cord of your inheritance."In him we also have been allotted an inheritance, marked out beforehand according to the aim of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will.THE THREAD
For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the measuring cord of his inheritance.The same inheritance word, נַחֲלָה (naḥălāh, inheritance), appears here. Psalm 136 says the land becomes Israel’s inheritance; Deuteronomy says Israel is the LORD’s inheritance, turning the gift into a reciprocal belonging.
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