What Does Psalm 14:7 Mean?
Oh that the deliverance of Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD turns back the captivity of his people, Jacob leaps, and Israel is glad.
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
Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.THE KEY
The verse holds the LORD’s turning and the people’s captivity in a Hebrew sound echo, revealing deliverance as a reversal of the very condition that bound them.
THE MEANING
This verse gives voice to a living longing for deliverance to emerge from Zion and for the LORD to turn the condition of his people. Captivity is not the final word: Jacob rejoices, and Israel is glad. The joy belongs to a people together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that captivity names a people permanently: the LORD can turn their condition, and their joy can return.
THE ROOT
בְּשׁוּב
beshūv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
To turn or return.
“turns back” in this verse is beshūv. The clause places שׁוּב (shuv, “turn/return”) beside שְׁבוּת (shevut, “captivity/captive fortunes”), making the sound echo meet the very condition named as captive. Restoration is a turn in what has held the people.
ALSO GROWS
shav: Turned, returned.
שָׁב
This form makes the turning in “bringeth back” concrete as a change of direction.
yashuv: He will return, turn back.
יָשׁוּב
This form carries the same movement toward return that changes the people’s condition.
יְשׁוּעַת
yeshuʿat
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
To deliver, bring out of distress.
Here salvation is deliverance coming forth from Zion, not only a status called salvation. Being brought out of distress joins the verse’s turning of captivity and its return to joy.
ALSO GROWS
yashaʿ: Deliver, bring out of danger or distress.
יָשַׁע
This verb gives the root’s action: deliverance brings a people out of what constrains them.
Yeshua: Deliverance; also a name formed from this root.
יֵשׁוּעַ
The name carries the nature of deliverance, echoing the verse’s longing for deliverance to come.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s deliverance turns captivity into return, and return opens into rejoicing.
A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the return of Zion, we were like dreamers.The ransomed of the LORD turn back and come to Zion with ringing cries, and the joy of the ages is upon their heads. They overtake joy and gladness, and sorrow and groaning flee.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the return of Zion, we were like dreamers.The KJV’s “bringeth back” and “turned again” both render שׁוּב (shuv, “turn/return”). Psalm 126:1 makes the turning visible at Zion; Psalm 14:7 adds the people’s rejoicing as its consequence.
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