What Does Psalm 25:9 Mean?
He sets the bowed ones walking in judgment, and teaches the bowed his way.
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 meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.THE KEY
Guidance and teaching are one movement here: God leads the lowly along a path he also makes known.
THE MEANING
When you are brought low, God guides you toward right judgment and teaches you his way. Direction and understanding come together: you are not only led onward but shown the character of the path.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Lowliness does not mean being left without direction; here the meek are precisely the ones God guides and teaches.
THE ROOT
עֲנָוִים
ʿănāwîm
GROWS FROM
ע־נ־ה
ʿ-n-h
To be brought low, afflicted, or bowed down; the word carries the sense of the humbled or lowly.
“bowed ones” in this verse is ʿănāwîm. The word translated “meek” can also carry the sense of people who are humbled or afflicted. Its repetition frames them as the ones God guides and teaches, placing lowliness beside instruction rather than outside it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānî: Poor or afflicted
עָנִי
This related form shares the low or afflicted sense and shows that “meek” can describe a lived condition, not only a mild temperament.
ʿănāwāh: Humility or meekness
עֲנָוָה
This related form names the lowly quality carried by the people in the verse.
יַדְרֵךְ
yadrēkh he guides
GROWS FROM
ד־ר־ך
d-r-k
To tread, step along, or travel a way.
“sets the bowed ones walking” in this verse is yadrēkh he guides. The verb for guiding shares its root with the word for “way.” The verse pictures guidance as leading someone along a path that can be walked, not merely pointing out a destination.
ALSO GROWS
dāraḵ: To tread or step
דָּרַךְ
The concrete action of stepping gives the verb “guide” a sense of movement along a course.
déreḵ: Way, road, or path
דֶּרֶךְ
The same root names the way God teaches in the second half of the verse, linking the act of guiding with the path itself.
וִילַמֵּד
wîlammed and he
GROWS FROM
ל־מ־ד
l-m-d
To learn, be trained, or teach.
The same root can describe both learning and teaching, so God’s instruction is not detached information; it is a path the lowly are trained to understand. This teaching verb also appears in the nearby prayer, “teach me thy paths.”
ALSO GROWS
lāmad: To learn or study
לָמַד
The root’s learning sense shows the other side of the teaching in this verse: instruction is received and understood.
limmūd: One who is taught or trained
לִמּוּד
This related form brings out teaching as formation over time, not merely the transfer of a direction.
THE PATTERN
God’s guidance takes the form of a way that can be followed and learned.
The steps of a strong one are set firm by the LORD, and he delights in his way.In all your ways, perceive him, and he straightens your paths.Lift my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and low in heart, and you will find rest for your living souls.THE THREAD
Show me your ways, LORD; teach me your paths.The same Hebrew root למד (l-m-d), meaning “learn” or “teach,” appears in both verses. The prayer asks to be taught God’s paths; this verse shows God teaching his way to the meek.
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