Psalms 119:9

Bible in Basic English (1941)

<BETH> How may a young man make his way clean? by guiding it after your word.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

בַּמֶּ֣ה יְזַכֶּה־נַּ֭עַר אֶת־אָרְח֑וֹ לִ֝שְׁמֹ֗ר כִּדְבָרֶֽךָ׃

Transliteration

In-meh yəzakkeh-naʿar ʾet-ʾorḥô to-šəmōr according-to-diḇāreḵā

Grammar Details

• In-*meh*: preposition *bə* + interrogative - in what/whereby
• *yəzakkeh*: Piel imperfect 3rd person masculine singular - he cleanses/purifies
• *naʿar*: masculine singular noun - young man/youth
• *ʾet*-*ʾorḥô*: direct object marker + masculine singular noun + 3rd person masculine singular suffix - his way
• to-*šəmōr*: preposition *lə* + Qal infinitive construct - to keep
• according-to-*diḇāreḵā*: preposition *kə* + masculine singular noun + 2nd person masculine singular suffix - according to your word

Word Meanings

• *meh*: what/how/whereby
• *yəzakkeh*: cleanse/purify/keep clean
• *naʿar*: young man/youth/boy/servant
• *ʾorḥô*: his way/path/journey/conduct
• *šəmōr*: keep/guard/observe/protect
• *diḇāreḵā*: your word/speech/matter/command

Referenced Verses

• Jas 1:21-25 : 21 For this reason, putting away all dirty behaviour and the overweight of evil, take into your souls without pride the word which, being planted there, is able to give you salvation. 22 But be doers of the word, and not only hearers of it, blinding yourselves with false ideas. 23 Because if any man is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a glass; 24 For after looking at himself he goes away, and in a short time he has no memory of what he was like. 25 But he who goes on looking into the true law which makes him free, being not a hearer without memory but a doer putting it into effect, this man will have a blessing on his acts.
• 2 Tim 2:22 : 22 But keep yourself from those desires of the flesh which are strong when the body is young, and go after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those whose prayers go up to the Lord from a clean heart.
• Josh 1:7 : 7 Only take heart and be very strong; take care to do all the law which Moses my servant gave you, not turning from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may do well in all your undertakings.
• Ps 25:7 : 7 Do not keep in mind my sins when I was young, or my wrongdoing: let your memory of me be full of mercy, O Lord, because of your righteousness.
• Ps 34:11 : 11 Come, children, give attention to me; I will be your teacher in the fear of the Lord.
• 2 Tim 3:15-17 : 15 And that from the time when you were a child, you have had knowledge of the holy Writings, which are able to make you wise to salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 Every holy Writing which comes from God is of profit for teaching, for training, for guiding, for education in righteousness: 17 So that the man of God may be complete, trained and made ready for every good work.
• Titus 2:4-6 : 4 Training the younger women to have love for their husbands and children, 5 To be wise in mind, clean in heart, kind; working in their houses, living under the authority of their husbands; so that no evil may be said of the word of God. 6 To the young men give orders to be wise and serious-minded:
• Eccl 11:9-12:1 : 9 Have joy, O young man, while you are young; and let your heart be glad in the days of your strength, and go in the ways of your heart, and in the desire of your eyes; but be certain that for all these things God will be your judge. 10 So put away trouble from your heart, and sorrow from your flesh; because the early years and the best years are to no purpose. 1 Let your mind be turned to your Maker in the days of your strength, while the evil days come not, and the years are far away when you will say, I have no pleasure in them;
• John 15:3 : 3 You are clean, even now, through the teaching which I have given you.
• Job 13:26 : 26 For you put bitter things on record against me, and send punishment on me for the sins of my early years;
• Ps 119:11 : 11 I have kept your sayings secretly in my heart, so that I might do no sin against you.
• Ps 119:97-99 : 97 <MEM> O what love I have for your law! I give thought to it all the day. 98 Your teaching has made me wiser than my haters: for it is mine for ever. 99 I have more knowledge than all my teachers, because I give thought to your unchanging word. 100 I have more wisdom than the old, because I have kept your orders. 101 I have kept back my feet from all evil ways, so that I might be true to your word. 102 My heart has not been turned away from your decisions; for you have been my teacher. 103 How sweet are your sayings to my taste! truly, they are sweeter than honey in my mouth! 104 Through your orders I get wisdom; for this reason I am a hater of every false way. 105 <NUN> Your word is a light for my feet, ever shining on my way.
• Prov 1:4 : 4 To make the simple-minded sharp, and to give the young man knowledge, and serious purpose:
• Prov 1:10 : 10 My son, if sinners would take you out of the right way, do not go with them.
• Prov 4:1 : 1 Give ear, my sons, to the teaching of a father; give attention so that you may have knowledge:
• Prov 4:10-17 : 10 Give ear, O my son, and let your heart be open to my sayings; and long life will be yours. 11 I have given you teaching in the way of wisdom, guiding your steps in the straight way. 12 When you go, your way will not be narrow, and in running you will not have a fall. 13 Take learning in your hands, do not let her go: keep her, for she is your life. 14 Do not go in the road of sinners, or be walking in the way of evil men. 15 Keep far from it, do not go near; be turned from it, and go on your way. 16 For they take no rest till they have done evil; their sleep is taken away if they have not been the cause of someone's fall. 17 The bread of evil-doing is their food, the wine of violent acts their drink.
• Prov 5:7-9 : 7 Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you. 8 Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house; 9 For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men: 10 And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others; 11 And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted; 12 And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training; 13 I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me! 14 I was in almost all evil in the company of the people. 15 Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain. 16 Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places. 17 Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you. 18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years. 19 As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love. 20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms? 21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales. 22 The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin. 23 He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
• Prov 6:20-35 : 20 My son, keep the rule of your father, and have in memory the teaching of your mother: 21 Keep them ever folded in your heart, and have them hanging round your neck. 22 In your walking, it will be your guide; when you are sleeping, it will keep watch over you; when you are awake, it will have talk with you. 23 For the rule is a light, and the teaching a shining light; and the guiding words of training are the way of life. 24 They will keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the strange woman. 25 Let not your heart's desire go after her fair body; let not her eyes take you prisoner. 26 For a loose woman is looking for a cake of bread, but another man's wife goes after one's very life. 27 May a man take fire to his breast without burning his clothing? 28 Or may one go on lighted coals, and his feet not be burned? 29 So it is with him who goes in to his neighbour's wife; he who has anything to do with her will not go free from punishment. 30 Men do not have a low opinion of a thief who takes food when he is in need of it: 31 But if he is taken in the act he will have to give back seven times as much, giving up all his property which is in his house. 32 He who takes another man's wife is without all sense: he who does it is the cause of destruction to his soul. 33 Wounds will be his and loss of honour, and his shame may not be washed away. 34 For bitter is the wrath of an angry husband; in the day of punishment he will have no mercy. 35 He will not take any payment; and he will not make peace with you though your money offerings are increased.
• Prov 7:7 : 7 I saw among the young men one without sense,
• Ps 1:1-3 : 1 Happy is the man who does not go in the company of sinners, or take his place in the way of evil-doers, or in the seat of those who do not give honour to the Lord. 2 But whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and whose mind is on his law day and night. 3 He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, which gives its fruit at the right time, whose leaves will ever be green; and he will do well in all his undertakings.
• Ps 19:7-9 : 7 The law of the Lord is good, giving new life to the soul: the witness of the Lord is certain, giving wisdom to the foolish. 8 The orders of the Lord are right, making glad the heart: the rule of the Lord is holy, giving light to the eyes. 9 The fear of the Lord is clean, and has no end; the decisions of the Lord are true and full of righteousness. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even than much shining gold; sweeter than the dropping honey. 11 By them is your servant made conscious of danger, and in keeping them there is great reward.
• Ps 78:4-8 : 4 We will not keep them secret from our children; we will make clear to the coming generation the praises of the Lord and his strength, and the great works of wonder which he has done. 5 He put up a witness in Jacob, and made a law in Israel; which he gave to our fathers so that they might give knowledge of them to their children; 6 So that the generation to come might have knowledge of them, even the children of the future, who would give word of them to their children; 7 So that they might put their hope in God, and not let God's works go out of their minds, but keep his laws; 8 And not be like their fathers, a stiff-necked and uncontrolled generation; a generation whose heart was hard, whose spirit was not true to God.
• Deut 6:6-9 : 6 Keep these words, which I say to you this day, deep in your hearts; 7 Teaching them to your children with all care, talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up. 8 Let them be fixed as a sign on your hand, and marked on your brow; 9 Have them lettered on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns.
• Deut 17:18 : 18 And when he has taken his place on the seat of his kingdom, he is to make in a book a copy of this law, from that which the priests, the Levites, have in their care:
• Job 1:5 : 5 And at the end of their days of feasting, Job sent and made them clean, getting up early in the morning and offering burned offerings for them all. For, Job said, It may be that my sons have done wrong and said evil of God in their hearts. And Job did this whenever the feasts came round.
• Luke 15:13 : 13 And not long after, the younger son got together everything which was his and took a journey into a far-away country, and there all his money went in foolish living.
• 2 Chr 6:16 : 16 So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, let your word to your servant David, my father, come true, when you said, You will never be without a man to take his place before me on the seat of the kingdom of Israel; if only your children give attention to their ways, walking in my law, as you have done before me.