As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
What does Psalms 42:1 mean?
The psalmist looked to the Lord as his chief good, and set his heart upon him accordingly; casting anchor thus at first, he rides out the storm.
Key themes
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Keep this verse inside its immediate passage and alongside a few nearby related passages.
Commentary on Psalms 42:1
As the hart panteth after the water-brooks - Margin, brayeth. The word rendered hart - 'ayal - means commonly a stag, hart, male deer: Deuteronomy 12:15 ; Deuteronomy 14:5 ; Isaiah 35:6 . The word is masculine, but in this place is joined with a feminine verb, as words of the common gender may be, and thus denotes a hind, or female deer. The word rendered in the text "panteth," and in the margin "brayeth" - arag - occurs only in this place and in Joel 1:20 , where it is applied to the beasts of the field as "crying" to God in a time of drought.
Key words
- panteth
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As the hart panteth after the water brooks,.
- after
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As the hart panteth after the water brooks,.
- water
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As the hart panteth after the water brooks,.
Context in Psalms 42
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Psalms 42 belongs to the middle movement of the book, especially the section often described as Book II. Psalms is the Bible’s great book of sung prayer, teaching the full range of faithful speech from anguish and repentance to jubilation and doxology. Read this chapter with the wider themes of prayer, praise, and lament in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.
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