What Does Psalm 71:21 Mean?
You multiply my greatness, and circle round to comfort me.
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
Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.THE KEY
The comfort here is pictured as encircling the person, reaching all the way around rather than arriving as a single point of relief.
THE MEANING
God’s promise reaches you now: your greatness is not fixed at its present measure, and comfort surrounds you on every side. The verse holds enlargement and consolation together as one movement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that your present stature is final is undone here: greatness can still increase, and comfort can still surround you.
THE ROOT
וְתִסֹּב
ve-tisov
GROWS FROM
סבב
turn around, go about, encircle
“circle round” in this verse is ve-tisov. The phrase rendered “on every side” carries the motion of going around. English describes the extent of the comfort; the Hebrew lets you hear it as an action that circles the person.
ALSO GROWS
savav: to go around or surround
סָבַב
It gives the verse’s spatial image: consolation circles the person.
sevivah: surroundings, vicinity
סְבִיבָה
This branch carries the same around-one idea into the space surrounding a person.
תְּנַחֲמֵנִי
tenaḥameni
GROWS FROM
נחם
comfort, console; in other forms, be comforted or relent
This is consolation given to a person, not simply a reassuring thought. Joined to the encircling verb, comfort becomes an action that reaches around the whole person.
ALSO GROWS
neḥamah: consolation
נֶחָמָה
It names the consolation carried by the verb in this verse.
menaḥem: comforter
מְנַחֵם
It names one who brings the comfort expressed here.
תַּרְבֶּה
tarbeh
GROWS FROM
רבה
become many, grow abundant, multiply
The verb for “increase” comes from רָבָה (rabah, “become many, multiply”), while “greatness” comes from גְּדֻלָּה (gedullah, “greatness”), from גָּדַל (gadal, “grow, become great”). Two distinct roots stack abundance and stature: greatness itself is made to abound.
ALSO GROWS
rav: many, much, abundant
רָב
It carries the root’s sense of abundance into a word for what is plentiful.
hirbah: increase, multiply
הִרְבָּה
This causative form makes the root’s idea of becoming many into an act of increasing.
THE PATTERN
God’s care enlarges a person’s life while surrounding them with consolation.
You give me the shield of your deliverance, and your right hand holds me up, and your bowing down makes me great.Even though I walk through the valley of deepest darkness, I do not fear harm, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.Who comforts us in all our pressure, so that we are able to comfort those in every pressure, through the same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.THE THREAD
Even though I walk through the valley of deepest darkness, I do not fear harm, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.Psalm 23:4 uses the same Hebrew root, נחם (nacham, “comfort, console”), as “comfort me” here. The valley shows where that consolation reaches; Psalm 71:21 adds the image of comfort turning around the person.
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