The Meaning of Psalms 147:2 Explained

Psalms 147:2

KJV: The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

YLT: Building Jerusalem is Jehovah, The driven away of Israel He gathereth.

Darby: Jehovah doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth the outcasts of Israel.

ASV: Jehovah doth build up Jerusalem; He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

The LORD  doth build up  Jerusalem:  he gathereth together  the outcasts  of Israel. 

What does Psalms 147:2 Mean?

Context Summary

Psalms 147:1-11 - Why We Praise The Lord
It has been supposed that this psalm was prepared for use when the new walls of the city were completed in the days of Nehemiah. It contains a further enumeration of God's present tenses. The psalmist never tires of celebrating the immediateness of God. He will not tolerate the intervention of second causes, which are the artifice of scientific explanation. Laws are, after all, only the convenient statement of the regularity of God's methods. The couplets of this psalm are amazingly suggestive. By contrast they complete each other. God builds up the great city of Jerusalem, but His heart goes out to the individual prodigal. He is equally at home in the hospital where broken hearts congregate, and among the stars, which He names and counts as a shepherd His flock. He upholds the meek and overthrows the proud. Spring, with its clouds and rain and sprouting grass, is His work; but so also the wild life of the forest, with its beasts and birds. He has no such delight in athletic strength or speed as He has in the reverent worship of His people. There is a perfect balance and rhythm in God's nature. [source]

Chapter Summary: Psalms 147

1  The prophet exhorts to praise God for his care of the church
4  His power and wisdom
6  His mercy
7  His providence
12  To praise him for his blessings upon the kingdom
15  For his power over the elements
19  And for his ordinances in the church

What do the individual words in Psalms 147:2 mean?

Builds up Jerusalem Yahweh the outcasts of Israel He gathers together
בּוֹנֵ֣ה יְרוּשָׁלִַ֣ם יְהוָ֑ה נִדְחֵ֖י יִשְׂרָאֵ֣ל יְכַנֵּֽס

בּוֹנֵ֣ה  Builds  up 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Participle, masculine singular construct
Root: בָּנָה  
Sense: to build, rebuild, establish, cause to continue.
יְרוּשָׁלִַ֣ם  Jerusalem 
Parse: Proper Noun, feminine singular
Root: יְרוּשָׁלַםִ  
Sense: the chief city of Palestine and capital of the united kingdom and the nation of Judah after the split.
יְהוָ֑ה  Yahweh 
Parse: Proper Noun, masculine singular
Root: יהוה 
Sense: the proper name of the one true God.
נִדְחֵ֖י  the  outcasts 
Parse: Verb, Nifal, Participle, masculine plural construct
Root: דָּחָה 
Sense: to push, thrust, chase, overflow, totter, sore, drive away or out, be outcast, be cast down.
יִשְׂרָאֵ֣ל  of  Israel 
Parse: Proper Noun, masculine singular
Root: יִשְׂרָאֵל  
Sense: the second name for Jacob given to him by God after his wrestling with the angel at Peniel.
יְכַנֵּֽס  He  gathers  together 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Imperfect, third person masculine singular
Root: כָּנַס  
Sense: to gather, collect, wrap.