What Does Psalm 69:31 Mean?
This is better for the LORD than an ox, than a bull drawing near with horns and parting hooves.
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
This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.THE KEY
The Hebrew word translated “please” comes from a root meaning “be good,” making praise itself the good offering in this comparison.
THE MEANING
The song and thanksgiving just named are pleasing to the LORD, surpassing even an ox or bull marked by horns and hoofs. Praise stands as an offering whose worth is measured by the goodness it expresses.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that God’s pleasure depends chiefly on an impressive, costly offering: the verse places praise and thanksgiving above the animal’s visible worth.
THE ROOT
תִיטַב
tîṭaḇ
GROWS FROM
יטב
y-ṭ-b
To be good or well; to be pleasing.
The line before names the gift as a song and thanksgiving, and this verb describes that gift as good to the LORD. The same seed also forms words for doing good and for things going well, so “please” carries the language of goodness rather than bare approval.
ALSO GROWS
hêṭîḇ: Did good; dealt well.
הֵיטִיב
This form uses the same root for doing good, bringing goodness into the verse’s description of what pleases the LORD.
yêṭaḇ: It will be well; it will go well.
יֵיטַב
Here the root describes things going well; in this verse, the offering is described as good to the LORD.
THE PATTERN
The offering that pleases God is responsive praise and obedience, whose worth exceeds the material scale of sacrifice.
Offer to God thanksgiving, and make whole your vows to the Most High.And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
Do good in your favor to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem.Psalm 51:18 uses הֵיטִיבָה (hêṭîḇâ, “do good”), another form of יטב (y-ṭ-b), the root behind “please” here. The shared root links the LORD’s pleasure with goodness done.
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