What Does Psalm 146:7 Mean?
Who makes judgment for the pressed, who gives bread to the hungry. The LORD loosens the bound.
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
Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:THE KEY
God’s justice confronts exploitation, hunger, and confinement with three concrete acts: judgment, food, and release.
THE MEANING
God acts now where people are exploited, hungry, or held in confinement. Justice reaches the wrong done to the oppressed, food reaches the hungry, and prisoners are loosened from their bonds. The verse holds public justice and ordinary bodily need inside the same care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that divine care concerns only the inward life; this verse names exploitation, hunger, and confinement as places where God acts.
THE ROOT
עֲשׁוּקִים
ʿashuqim
GROWS FROM
עשק
ʿ-sh-q
To oppress, exploit, or defraud.
“the pressed” in this verse is ʿashuqim. The word identifies people wronged through exploitation, not people whose trouble is treated as a character flaw. The justice in this verse answers the exploitative act that has constrained them.
ALSO GROWS
ʿashaq: Oppress or defraud.
עָשַׁק
This verb names the wrong that lies behind the condition of the oppressed.
osheq: Oppression, extortion, or unjust gain.
עֹשֶׁק
This noun shows exploitation as a practice that judgment must answer.
מַתִּיר
mattir
GROWS FROM
נתר
n-t-r
To loosen, unfasten, or set free.
“loosens the bound” in this verse is mattir. The line does not describe a vague easing of distress: the Hebrew verb pictures a loosening, while prisoners are named as אֲסוּרִים (asurim, “bound ones”), from אָסַר (asar, “to bind”). The distinct roots sharpen the pairing: bonds are named, and God is the one unfastening them.
ALSO GROWS
nathar: Loosen or unfasten.
נָתַר
This is the basic verbal form behind the release pictured in the verse.
mattir: One who loosens or sets free.
מַתִּיר
This active form presents the LORD as acting to release the bound.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
To judge, decide, or establish a rightful case.
“makes judgment” in this verse is mishpat. Mishpat is judgment enacted on a matter; here it is done for those whose cause is exposed to oppression. The verse keeps justice concrete by placing it beside food given and prisoners released.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: Judge or decide a case.
שָׁפַט
This verb is the action contained in the word “judgment.”
shofet: A judge, one who decides a case.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch makes the agent of judgment visible alongside the LORD’s action.
THE PATTERN
Divine justice becomes visible as the exploited receive a righted case, the hungry receive food, and the bound are released.
The LORD makes alignment and judgment for all who are pressed.He executes judgment for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him bread and a cloak.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
The LORD makes alignment and judgment for all who are pressed.The Hebrew repeats עֲשׁוּקִים (ʿashuqim, “the oppressed”) and pairs it with מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “judgment”). That shared root-level claim makes clear that God’s judgment answers people subjected to exploitation.
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