What Does Psalm 66:13 Mean?
I will enter your house with rising offerings; I will make my vows whole to you.
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
I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows,THE KEY
The verb for paying a vow comes from the root of wholeness: the promise reaches its whole shape when fulfilled.
THE MEANING
You enter God’s house carrying burnt offerings, and you fulfill your vows to God. The verse holds a rising offering beside a completed promise: what you bring into God’s presence and what you carry through to completion belong to the same act of approach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A vow is only a sincere intention; this verse names fulfillment as the completion of what was promised.
THE ROOT
אֲשַׁלֵּם
ʾashallēm
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
Be whole or complete; bring to completion, make good, or repay.
“make whole” in this verse is ʾashallēm. The verb translated “pay” is a form of שׁלם, the root that also gives שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “wholeness”). A vow reaches its finished shape in the act of fulfilling it, alongside an offering named for its rising.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness
שָׁלוֹם
This branch makes the language of wholeness audible in the root behind “I will pay.”
shalēm: Complete, whole
שָׁלֵם
The vow is not left as an intention; the verb points toward bringing it to completion.
shillēm: Repay, pay back
שִׁלֵּם
This is the same verbal pattern as the verse’s “I will pay,” showing the concrete action carried by the root.
עֹלוֹת
ʿolot
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
Rise, ascend, go up.
“rising offerings” in this verse is ʿolot. The word for burnt offerings is עֹלוֹת, from the root עלה, “rise” or “go up.” The verse pairs an offering that rises with a vow brought to completion.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: Rise, go up, ascend
עָלָה
This verb carries the upward movement present in the word for the offerings.
ʿaliyah: Ascent, going up
עֲלִיָּה
This noun preserves the same upward movement, illuminating the offering as something associated with rising.
THE PATTERN
A vow reaches its full shape when intention is carried into the promised action.
When you vow a vow to God, do not linger to make it whole. For there is no delight in the thick-headed. Make whole what you have vowed.I make whole my vows to the LORD, now in front of all his people.Now then, finish the doing of it, that just as the heart leaned forward to desire, so there may be a finishing also out of what you have.THE THREAD
I make whole my vows to the LORD, now in front of all his people.Psalm 66:13 uses אֲשַׁלֵּם (ʾashallēm, “I will pay”), from שׁלם (sh-l-m), the root also heard in שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “wholeness”). Psalm 116:14 repeats the same verb and the phrase “my vows,” making the root connection audible again.
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