What Does Psalm 147:6 Mean?
The LORD lifts up the bowed, and brings the wicked low to the earth.
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 lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.THE KEY
The LORD’s lifting of the meek is sustaining support, while the wicked are brought low.
THE MEANING
The LORD sustains you when you are among the bowed-down; your low place does not mean you are abandoned. The verse also says wickedness is brought low, so it has no lasting height.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being meek means being overlooked by God, or that wickedness can remain secure forever.
THE ROOT
מְעוֹדֵד
məʿōdēd
GROWS FROM
עָדַד
ʿādad
To support, sustain, encourage.
“lifts up” in this verse is məʿōdēd. The verb translated “lifteth up” carries the sense of supporting or sustaining. The lift is a holding action: the lowly are borne up, while the next verb lowers the wicked.
ALSO GROWS
məʿōdēd: One who supports or encourages; the participle used here.
מְעוֹדֵד
The form presents support as an ongoing action toward the meek.
ʿiddûd: Encouragement or support in later Hebrew usage.
עִידוּד
This related form preserves the root’s sense of strengthening someone through support.
עֲנָוִים
ʿănāwîm
GROWS FROM
עָנָה
ʿānâ
To be bowed down, afflicted, or humbled.
“Meek” belongs to a word family for those bowed down or afflicted, not only people with a mild temperament. The verse’s first half therefore speaks of support for the lowly.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānî: Poor or afflicted.
עָנִי
This related form gives the lowly’s condition a concrete, material weight.
ʿŏnî: Affliction or poverty.
עֳנִי
It names the pressed-down condition carried in the word family behind “meek.”
מַשְׁפִּיל
mašpîl
GROWS FROM
שָׁפַל
šāphal
To be low or to bring low.
“brings low” in this verse is mašpîl. The verb shares its root with the state of being low: it pictures the wicked being brought into lowliness, not merely stumbling. Beside the support given to the meek, the verse sets two different directions, one group is sustained, the other lowered.
ALSO GROWS
šāphāl: Low or humble.
שָׁפָל
The adjective names the low condition expressed by the verb.
hišpîl: To bring low or humble.
הִשְׁפִּיל
This related verb makes explicit the lowering action in the verse.
šĕphēlāh: Lowland or low country.
שְׁפֵלָה
The geographical term extends the root’s image of what lies low.
THE PATTERN
God’s ordering sustains the lowly and brings down those who stand above them through wickedness.
He raises the bowed one from the dust, and lifts the one in want from the ash heap;He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.But he gives greater favor. Therefore it says, God sets himself against those who lift themselves high, and gives favor to those made low.THE THREAD
For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he dresses the bowed ones in deliverance.Psalm 149:4 uses the same word עֲנָוִים (ʿănāwîm, meek) and joins it to יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah, deliverance). The lowly are not only lifted away from the dust; they are adorned by being brought out.
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