What Does Psalm 16:10 Mean?
For you do not leave my living soul to Sheol; you do not give your faithful one to see the pit.
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
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.THE KEY
The “Holy One” is a hasid, one marked by chesed, faithful love, so the verse binds the living self’s passage through death to love’s refusal to abandon.
THE MEANING
Your living self is not abandoned to the grave’s claim, and the one marked by faithful love is not handed over to ruin. The verse holds death and corruption in view while saying they do not define life’s final boundary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that death or decay has the final claim over the living self.
THE ROOT
חֲסִידְךָ
ḥasîdekha
GROWS FROM
ח־ס־ד
ḥ-s-d
Faithful love; loyalty expressed through care.
“Holy One / your faithful one” in this verse is ḥasîdekha. The word rendered “Holy One” is חֲסִידְךָ (ḥasîdekha, your faithful one), from the root חֶסֶד (ḥesed, faithful love). That root lets the verse speak of the one who is not abandoned as belonging to faithful love.
ALSO GROWS
ḥesed: Faithful love
חֶסֶד
This is the root’s central idea and gives “Holy One” a relational depth in the verse.
ḥasid: A faithful one, one characterized by faithful love
חָסִיד
This is the word behind “Holy One,” joining the person named to the nature of chesed.
נַפְשִׁי
nafshi
GROWS FROM
נ־פ־ש
n-p-sh
The living self; a person or life.
“my living soul” in this verse is nafshi. Nefesh names the living self, not merely an inward part separated from the person. The related verb naphash means to be refreshed, so “my soul” points to the whole life that is threatened by Sheol and held beyond its claim.
ALSO GROWS
nephesh: Living soul, living self
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word translated “my soul,” naming the life that the verse says is not left in Sheol.
naphash: To be refreshed
נָפַשׁ
This related verb carries the root’s connection to renewal of the living self.
שַׁחַת
shaḥat
GROWS FROM
ש־ח־ת
sh-ḥ-t
Pit, ruin, or destruction.
“the pit” in this verse is shaḥat. The word rendered “corruption” also carries the sense of a pit or destruction. The verse holds decay and the place of ruin together, then says the faithful one is not handed over to that fate.
ALSO GROWS
shaḥat: Pit; destruction
שַׁחַת
The word can name the place of ruin as well as the corruption threatened in the verse.
shaḥat: To ruin, destroy, or corrupt
שָׁחַת
The related verb shows the destructive force contained in the word’s image of the pit.
THE PATTERN
The grave does not have the final claim over the living self; life is held beyond the pit.
O LORD, you brought up my living soul from Sheol. You kept me alive from those who go down into the pit.He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord GOD will wipe tears from all faces, and he will remove the taunt of his people from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.Jesus said to her, I am the rising, and the life. Whoever leans their weight into me, even if they die, will live.THE THREAD
For the LORD loves judgment and does not leave his faithful ones. They are guarded for the ages, but the seed of the wicked will be cut off.This verse repeats עָזַב (ʿāzab, leave or forsake) and חֶסֶד (ḥesed, faithful love) through “forsaketh not” and “his saints” (חֲסִידָיו, ḥasîdāw, faithful ones). That shared pairing shows the un-abandoned life and the identity shaped by faithful love belong together.
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