What Does Psalm 18:29 Mean?
For by you I run through a troop; and by my God I leap over a wall.
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 by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.THE KEY
The Hebrew בְּךָ (bekha, in you) makes God the ground of the speaker’s movement: the troop and wall remain, yet the speaker passes through and over them.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now of a threat that is still present and a barrier that is still real. In God, movement passes through the force and over the wall; the landscape does not have to disappear for a way through to open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that an obstacle must vanish before any way forward exists. Here, the troop and wall remain in view while movement becomes possible through God.
THE ROOT
גְּדוּד
gedud
GROWS FROM
גדד
The root גדד (gadad) means to cut or gash; גְּדוּד (gedud) names a troop or raiding band, carrying an edge of attack.
The troop is more than a crowd: its word belongs to a family tied to cutting and raiding. The speaker runs through an active threat, not an empty space.
ALSO GROWS
gadad: to cut or gash
גָּדַד
This verb exposes the violence carried in the troop’s word family.
gedud: a troop or raiding band
גְּדוּד
This is the force the speaker crosses, giving the movement real danger.
אֲדַלֶּג
adaleg
GROWS FROM
דלג
דלג (dalag) means to leap or skip.
“leap over” in this verse is adaleg. The same verb describes the beloved leaping over mountains in Song of Solomon 2:8. A wall here and mountains there become terrain crossed by movement, rather than barriers that must first disappear.
ALSO GROWS
medalleg: leaping
מְדַלֵּג
Song of Solomon 2:8 uses this form for leaping over mountains, echoing movement across difficult terrain.
dilug: a leap or skip
דִּלּוּג
The noun preserves the root’s image of crossing space in a sudden bound.
אָרוּץ
aruts
GROWS FROM
רוץ
רוץ (ruts) means to run or move swiftly.
“run through” in this verse is aruts. The verse describes ordinary bodily motion, but locates its source in God. Isaiah uses the same running root for those who run without growing weary, joining passage through danger with strength that endures.
ALSO GROWS
ritsah: running
רִיצָה
This noun keeps the verse’s image concrete: the speaker moves through danger on foot.
merots: a race or course
מֵרוֹץ
The root also names sustained movement along a course, echoing the verse’s passage through resistance.
THE PATTERN
Strength received from God carries a person across resistance and difficult terrain while the obstacle remains real.
But those who wait upon the LORD exchange their strength; they rise on wings like eagles; they run and do not tire; they walk and do not faint.The LORD God is my strength, and he sets my feet like the feet of hinds, and upon my heights he makes me tread. To the one who leads, upon my strings.But in all these things we are more than overcomers through him who loved us.THE THREAD
But those who wait upon the LORD exchange their strength; they rise on wings like eagles; they run and do not tire; they walk and do not faint.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root רוץ (ruts, to run) as Psalm 18:29. There, running continues without weariness; here, it carries the speaker through a troop, so both verses picture movement sustained by strength from God.
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