What Does Psalm 31:4 Mean?
Bring me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my strength.
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
Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.THE KEY
The hidden net is not the last word: the verse locates your way out in the strength that is also your refuge.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you from inside a real entanglement and names God as your stronghold. Its plea is for an exit from what has been set to catch you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being caught means being left without strength: the verse names God as the refuge from which an exit is possible.
THE ROOT
תּוֹצִיאֵנִי
totsi'eni
GROWS FROM
יצא
Go out, come forth, emerge
“bring me out” in this verse is totsi'eni. The request is built on יצא (yatsa, to go out or emerge): it asks for movement from inside the snare to outside it. The same seed yields words for going out and for an outlet, so deliverance here is an opening into which you can emerge.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To move out or emerge
יָצָא
This is the verb’s basic movement: the verse asks for a way from within the net to beyond it.
yetzi'ah: An exit or departure
יְצִיאָה
The same root names the passage out, making the plea about an actual way through entanglement.
motsa: A point or way of going out
מוֹצָא
This branch gives the root’s movement a shape: an opening where what is caught can emerge.
מָעוּזִּי
ma'uzzi
GROWS FROM
עזז
Be strong, be mighty
The word rendered strength is מָעוּזִּי (ma’uzzi, my stronghold): strength is pictured as a place of refuge. The root ties might to shelter, so the one asked to bring you out is also the place where you are held secure.
ALSO GROWS
azaz: To possess strength or might
עָזַז
This verbal root lies beneath the word for stronghold and makes its shelter an expression of strength.
oz: Strength or power
עֹז
This related form keeps the verse’s strength concrete: the refuge is marked by might.
az: Strong or powerful
עַז
This adjective echoes the root’s force in the word for a strong place of refuge.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance is movement out of entanglement into the strength that shelters you.
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.My eyes are always toward the LORD, for he brings my feet out of the net.And that they may come back to their senses out of the snare of the Slanderer, who have been caught alive by him into his will.THE THREAD
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.The Hebrew וְהוֹצֵאתִי (vehotzeiti, I will bring out) shares root יצא (yatsa, go out) with Pull me out in this verse. The image shifts from a hidden net to burdens and bondage, while the same root reveals deliverance as being brought out of what confines.
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