What Does Psalm 41:13 Mean?
Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, from the age to the age. Amen, and Amen.
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
Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.THE KEY
The verse names the LORD as blessed across every age, then makes the declaration firm with a doubled Amen.
THE MEANING
The LORD God of Israel is blessed from age to age, and your present voice enters that praise now. The repeated Amen gives the words a steady, emphatic close.
THE ROOT
בָּרוּךְ
barukh
GROWS FROM
ברך
To bless; this word-family also carries the bodily image of the knee.
“Blessed be” in this verse is barukh. English “blessed” can sound like a status alone, while the Hebrew word-family also holds the image of a bent knee. Here, blessing names the LORD and gives praise a posture as well as a voice.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: knee
בֶּרֶךְ
The knee gives the family its bodily image, a posture held alongside the act of blessing.
berakhah: blessing
בְּרָכָה
This noun from the same root makes explicit the blessing spoken over the LORD.
אָמֵן
amen
GROWS FROM
אמן
To be firm, steady, or trustworthy.
“Amen, and Amen” in this verse is amen. Amen carries the sense of firmness: what has been said is affirmed as steady. Repeating it makes that affirmation audible twice.
ALSO GROWS
aman: to be firm or steady
אָמַן
This verb shows the root’s basic sense of firmness beneath the closing Amen.
emunah: trust, firmness
אֱמוּנָה
This related word carries the same root sense of steadiness, linking the Amen to trust.
THE PATTERN
Blessing is voiced toward God across time and answered with affirmation.
Let the LORD God of Israel be blessed, from the age to the age, and let all the people say, Amen. Praise the LORD.Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Father of compassions and the God of all comfort.And every created thing in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that is in them, I hear them saying, Blessing, and honor, and weight, and power, be to the one who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, into the ages of the ages.THE THREAD
And let his weighty name be blessed for the ages, and let the whole earth be filled with his weight. Amen, and amen.Psalm 72:19 uses the same בָּרַךְ (barak, bless) word-family and closes with the same doubled Amen. The blessing and its firm affirmation appear together again, opening this verse as part of a recurring pattern of praise.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us