What Does Psalm 22:31 Mean?
They come and declare his alignment to a people yet to be born, for he has done this.
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
They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.THE KEY
The deed keeps speaking beyond its first witnesses, reaching people who have not yet been born.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to you as someone receiving a declaration carried across generations: what God has done is still being made known. Its reach extends beyond its first witnesses, so you are not outside the testimony because you did not see the deed firsthand.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what God has done matters only to those who witnessed it directly.
THE ROOT
יַגִּידוּ
yaggidu
GROWS FROM
נגד
n-g-d
To be in front or conspicuous; in its causative form, to make known.
“declare” in this verse is yaggidu. The word for declaring carries the sense of bringing something into view. The deed is not left hidden with its first witnesses; it is set before people still to come.
ALSO GROWS
neged: Before, in front of, opposite
נֶגֶד
This branch gives the declaration a sense of placing the deed before those who have not yet seen it.
maggid: One who tells or declares
מַגִּיד
The coming witnesses are tellers who carry what has been done into the next generation.
צִדְקָתוֹ
tsidqato
GROWS FROM
צדק
ts-d-q
Rightness and justice; alignment with what is right.
The phrase names the character of the deed being proclaimed: his alignment made known. Its declaration carries that alignment forward rather than leaving the deed private to those who saw it.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness, justice
צֶדֶק
This branch names the quality being declared: the rightness of what he has done.
tsaddiq: A righteous or just person
צַדִּיק
The same root describes a person characterized by rightness, showing how the proclaimed quality can also describe a life.
נוֹלָד
nolad
GROWS FROM
ילד
y-l-d
To bear, beget, or bring forth; in this form, to be born.
“yet to be born” in this verse is nolad. The audience is described as a people coming into birth, not merely as a crowd already present. The declaration is meant to reach those who inherit the world after the first witnesses are gone.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: To bear or beget
יָלַד
The verb names the bringing forth that makes a coming generation possible.
toledot: Generations, origins, or begettings
תּוֹלְדוֹת
This branch makes the generational reach explicit: what is declared can pass through successive births.
yeled: Child
יֶלֶד
The root also names the child as the one who receives what earlier generations carry forward.
THE PATTERN
What is witnessed in one generation is carried forward so people yet to come can receive it.
This is written for the generation to come, and a people yet to be created praise the LORD.Only guard yourself, and guard your living soul carefully, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they turn aside from your heart all the days of your life. But make them known to your children, and to your children's children.And these things you heard from me among many witnesses, place beside steady people who will be able to teach others also.THE THREAD
He shall see the toil of his living soul, and be filled. By his knowing, my servant, the one in alignment, shall align many, and he shall carry their crookedness.The Psalm’s צִדְקָתוֹ (tsidqato, his righteousness or alignment) and Isaiah’s צַדִּיק (tsaddiq, righteous) and יַצְדִּיק (yatsdiq, justify) share the root צדק. Together, they connect the declaration of his alignment with that alignment reaching many through the servant.
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