What Does Psalm 78:70 Mean?
He chose David, his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
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
He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:THE KEY
David’s name carries the root of belovedness, and his choosing begins among the sheepfolds: hidden work is already within the reach of selection.
THE MEANING
Your choosing can meet you while your work is still unseen. This verse holds belovedness, labor, and being taken from an enclosure together: hiddenness does not place your life beyond the reach of appointment. The movement leads into service, not status.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that hidden labor means you are overlooked or unchosen; here, the choice meets David in the sheepfolds.
THE ROOT
מִמִּכְלְאֹת
mimmikhle'ot
GROWS FROM
כלא
k-l-ʾ
To shut in, restrain, or hold back.
The word for sheepfolds comes from a root that also forms a word for prison. That does not make the fold a prison; it lets the line’s movement register as David is chosen and taken out from a bounded place of work.
ALSO GROWS
mikhla'ah: A fold or enclosure for animals.
מִכְלָאָה
It shares the root of the sheepfolds David is taken from.
kele: A prison or place of confinement.
כֶּלֶא
It shows how the same root can carry the idea of being shut in.
וַיִּבְחַר
vayivchar
GROWS FROM
בחר
b-ḥ-r
To choose or select.
“chose” in this verse is vayivchar. The verb makes selection an action: David does not first climb into view; the choosing reaches him where he works. Beside the root of enclosure, it gives the verse a movement from bounded labor toward entrusted service.
ALSO GROWS
bachur: A young man; one chosen or selected.
בָּחוּר
The word carries the same root of selection into a description of a person.
mivchar: A choice or the best selection.
מִבְחָר
It shows the root extending from the act of choosing to what is chosen.
דָּוִד
David
GROWS FROM
דוד
dod
Beloved.
The name shares its root with the word for beloved. The verse names David before it names his hidden work, so his belovedness is already carried into the scene at the sheepfolds.
ALSO GROWS
dod: Beloved; also used as a kinship term for an uncle.
דּוֹד
It is the root word associated with the name David and its sense of belovedness.
dodim: Loves or caresses.
דּוֹדִים
It extends the same root into expressions of love.
THE PATTERN
A calling can take shape in hidden or ordinary work before it appears as public responsibility.
And the LORD took me from behind the flock, and the LORD said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel.And Jesus said to them, "Come behind me, and I will make you fishers of humankind."But God picked out the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; and God picked out the weak things of the world to shame the strong.THE THREAD
And the LORD took me from behind the flock, and the LORD said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel.The Hebrew verb לָקַח (laqach, to take) appears in both lines: David is taken from the sheepfolds, and Amos says the LORD took him as he followed the flock. The same taking draws each man from the work at hand into a different responsibility.
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