What Does Psalm 145:14 Mean?
The LORD props up all who fall, and straightens all who are bent.
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
The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.THE KEY
The verse distinguishes a fall from a bend, naming support for the first and an uprighting for the second.
THE MEANING
The LORD is present as support when your footing gives way and as the one who brings you upright when pressure has bent you low. The repeated “all” leaves no category of fallen or bowed outside that care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that you must first stand back up before help can reach you dissolves here: the verse names the fallen as the ones being upheld.
THE ROOT
סוֹמֵךְ
somekh
GROWS FROM
סמך
s-m-k
To support, sustain, or lean upon.
“props up” in this verse is somekh. The Hebrew word carries the sense of weight resting on support, not help held at a distance. The same root joins bodily support with inward reliance: what is upheld can lean its weight there.
ALSO GROWS
samukh: Supported, stayed upon.
סָמוּךְ
Isaiah 26:3 uses this form for a mind “stayed” on God, so the root describes inner reliance as well as support beneath the fallen.
samak: To lean on or lay a hand upon.
סָמַךְ
In Leviticus 1:4, this verb describes laying a hand on the offering; the root gives support the quality of close contact.
וְזוֹקֵף
vezoqef
GROWS FROM
זקף
z-q-f
To raise upright or set straight.
“straightens” in this verse is vezoqef. This verb names a movement toward an upright posture, not simply an increase in height or status. Paired with support under falling, it shows care as both holding and straightening.
ALSO GROWS
zaqaf: To raise or make upright.
זָקַף
The verb gives the verse’s action a direction: the bowed are brought toward standing straight.
zaquf: Upright, erect.
זָקוּף
This related form names the posture toward which the raising moves the bowed.
הַכְּפוּפִים
hakkefufim
GROWS FROM
כפף
k-p-f
To bend, fold, or bow down.
The Hebrew marks a bent posture, not merely low status: these are people folded downward. Set beside “raiseth up,” the word makes the change in direction visible.
ALSO GROWS
kafaf: To bend or bow down.
כָּפַף
The verb describes the downward bending that the verse’s raising answers.
kafuf: Bent or bowed.
כָּפוּף
This related form names the posture carried by those described here, which the paired verb reverses.
THE PATTERN
Divine support meets both the loss of footing and the weight that folds a person down, carrying them toward uprightness.
Though he falls, he will not be hurled down, for the LORD props him up with his hand.The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD straightens the bent; the LORD loves the aligned.And he laid his hands on her, and at once she was made straight and gave weight to God.THE THREAD
Though he falls, he will not be hurled down, for the LORD props him up with his hand.Psalm 37:24 uses the same Hebrew root behind “upholdeth”: the fall is not denied, but the fallen one is not left unsupported. Psalm 145:14 extends that support into a second movement, raising those who are bowed.
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