What Does Psalm 78:30 Mean?
They did not turn aside from their craving, while their food was still in their mouths.
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
They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,THE KEY
The mouth can be full while desire is still hungry.
THE MEANING
The craving can remain present while what it reaches for is already in your mouth. Possession does not necessarily loosen desire; getting what you want and being freed from wanting are not the same moment. The verse names that gap without pretending the appetite has ended.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that getting what you want will automatically end the wanting.
THE ROOT
תַּאֲוָה
ta’avah
GROWS FROM
אוה
ʾ-w-h
to desire, long for
תַּאֲוָה (ta’avah, desire or craving) comes from אָוָה (ʾāvāh, to desire or long for); it names appetite broadly, not only sexual lust. The root’s verbal forms describe the act of craving, while the noun names the craving itself, exposing the gap between having food and being released from wanting.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāvāh: to desire, long for
אָוָה
The verb names the inward reaching that remains even when the desired food is already present.
vayyit’avvu: they craved
וַיִּתְאַוּוּ
This form of the same root appears in Psalm 106:14, showing craving as an ongoing act, not merely a wish that ends when it is fulfilled.
זָרוּ
zārû
GROWS FROM
זור
zûr
to be strange, become a stranger, or turn aside
The word behind “estranged” comes from זור (zûr, to be strange or turn aside): the craving has not become foreign to them. The verse holds this closeness of desire beside a mouth already occupied; possessing the food has not made the craving a stranger.
ALSO GROWS
zār: a stranger, outsider
זָר
This related form makes the image vivid: the desire has not become an outsider to the person.
zārû: they became estranged or turned away
זָרוּ
The verse negates this action: they have not turned away from their craving, even while eating.
THE PATTERN
Appetite can keep reaching beyond what it already has and continue shaping the inner life.
All the toil of humankind is for his mouth, yet the living soul is not filled.Sheol and the place of perishing are never filled, and the eyes of man are never filled.And the cares of this age, and the deceit of riches, and the hungers for other things, going in, choke the word, and it becomes fruitless.THE THREAD
But they craved a craving in the wilderness, and tested God in the wasteland.Psalm 106:14 uses the same Hebrew root for craving in both the verb and the noun: desire is something enacted as well as felt. Beside Psalm 78:30, it reveals that food in the mouth has not ended the inward reaching.
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