Psalms 20:4

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

May He grant you your heart's desire, And fulfill all your counsel.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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עֲצָתְךָ֥

ʻêtsâh

H6098

“counsel · your”

Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 90× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Deuteronomy 32:28

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H3289

TWOT: 887a

counsel, advice, purpose

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

6: words
5: distinct lemmas
Wisdom: section

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
3 nouns
1 preposition

Verb forms

יִֽתֶּן Qal · Imperfect
יְמַלֵּֽא Piel · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 12 words from the Hebrew and 11 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 6 Hebrew tokens and 10 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Psalms 20:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Psalms 145:19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He also will hear their cry, and will save them.
Psalms 37:4 Also delight yourself in Yahweh, And he will give you the desires of your heart.
Matthew 21:22 All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."
Psalms 21:2 You have given him his heart's desire, And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.
John 16:23 "In that day you will ask me no questions. Most assuredly I tell you, whatever you may ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
Romans 8:27–28 He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit's mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.
Proverbs 11:23 The desire of the righteous is only good. The expectation of the wicked is wrath.
1 John 5:14–15 This is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us.

John 11:42 I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude that stands around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me."

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

You’re reading Greek Psalm 19 (Hebrew Psalm 20). The Septuagint counts the superscription, so verse numbers can differ from the Hebrew — chapter-level alignment, not verse-by-verse. Numbering follows Rahlfs.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Psalms 20:4 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

יִֽתֶּן לְךָ֥ כִלְבָבֶ֑ךָ וְֽכָל עֲצָתְךָ֥ יְמַלֵּֽא

May He grant you your heart's desire, And fulfill all your counsel.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Greek Psalm 19:4 Septuagint · lemma form

μιμνήσκω πᾶς θυσία σύ καί ὁ ὁλοκαύτωμα σύ πιαίνω διάψαλμα

Grant you according to your heart, and fulfill all your desire.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Commentary

Notes on Psalms 20:4 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Commentary source

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Psa 20:4 Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.

Ver. 4. Grant thee according to thine own heart] David’s heart was according to God’s heart (otherwise this had not been a warrantable petition), and therefore might say (and the people on his behalf), as once Luther did, Fiat voluntas mea; mea, Domine, quia tua, Let my will be done; mine I say, Lord, because the same with thine.

And fulfil all thy counsel] Answer thee, ad cardinem desiderii, as a Father expresseth it (Aug. Confess. l. 5, c. 8). Let it be unto thee even as thou wilt. Sometimes God doth not only grant a man’s prayer, but fulfilleth his counsel; that is, in that very way, by that very means, which his judgment pitch upon in his thoughts.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. A. Alexander on Psalms

Joseph Addison Alexander

5. (Psa 20:4). (May he) give thee according to thy heart, and all thy counsel (or design) fulfil. This is not a vague wish for success in general, but a prayer for success on the particular occasion when the psalm was to be used.— Thy heart, thy desire. Thy counsel, the plan which thou hast formed and undertaken to execute in God's name, and for the protection or deliverance of his people.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

20:4-5 make all your plans succeed . . . answer all your prayers: These requests could be those stated in 21:3-6 (cp. 27:4).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

thy counsel--or plan.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 4. Grant thee according to thine own heart] May God give thee whatsoever thou art setting thy heart upon, and accomplish all thy desires! This was probably the prayer of the high priest.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

4. according to thine own heart] The literal rendering of the Heb. The R.V. restores the more graceful rendering of P.B.V., thy heart’s desire; but the expression is a different one from that in Psa_21:2.

counsel] In the war. Cp. 2Sa_16:20; 2Ki_18:20.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Grant thee according to thine own heart,.... Which is to see his seed, the travail of his soul, and to have the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hand; to have all his people called, preserved, and glorified;

and fulfil all thy counsel; whatever was agreed upon in the council and covenant of peace between him and his Father, relating to his own glory, and the salvation of his people.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Grant thee according to thine own heart - According to thy wishes; according to the desires of thy heart.

And fulfil all thy counsel - All that thou hast designed or undertaken in the matter; that is, may he enable thee to execute thy purpose.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

According to thine own heart, i.e. that good success which thy heart desires.

All thy counsels; thy present design for God, and for his and thy people.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Treasury of David

Charles H. Spurgeon

Ver. 4. Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel. Christ's desire and counsel were both set upon the salvation of his people; the church of old desired for him good speed in his design, and the church in these latter days, with all her heart desires the complete fulfilment of his purpose. In Christ Jesus sanctified souls may appropriate this verse as a promise; they shall have their desire, and their plans to glorify their Master shall succeed. We may have our own will, when our will is God's will. This was always the case with our Lord, and yet he said, "not as I will, but as thou wilt." What need for submission in our case; if it was necessary to him, how much more for us?

Ver. 4. Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel. Let us here call to mind the zealous and earnest desire of the Redeemer to accomplish his work, "I have a baptism to be baptised with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." Lu 12:50. "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer" (Lu 22:15); that he might leave a memorial of his sufferings and death, for the strengthening and refreshing of their souls. These earnest desires and anticipations did the Father satisfy, as of one with whom he was well pleased. W. Wilson.

Ver. 4. Fulfil all thy counsel; whatever was agreed upon in the counsel and covenant of peace between him and his Father, relating to his own glory, and the salvation of his people. John Gill.

Ver. 4. Fulfil all thy counsel. Answer thee, ad cardinem desiderii, as a father, Augustine, expresses it; let it be unto thee even as thou wilt. Sometimes God doth not only grant a man's prayer, but fulfils his counsel; that is, in that very way, by that very means, which his judgment pitched upon in his thoughts. John Trapp.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

4. Grant thee according—The answer is acknowledged, Psa_21:2.

Fulfil all thy counsel— “All thy plans and measures in the war.”— Perowne.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Grant thee according to thine own heart; i.e. whatever thy heart desireth "in connection with this expedition, all that thou hopest from it, all that thou wouldst have it accomplish." And fulfil all thy counsel; i.e. make all thy plans to prosper.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

your meal offerings...burnt offerings They are the prayers that you pray in battle.

fat Heb. ידשנה, an expression of fat, as (in Deut. 31:20): “and it will eat and be satisfied, and it will become obese (ודשן),” i.e., He will accept them [the prayers] willingly like fat burnt offering.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Psalms, in the Wisdom, opens this verse with 6 words (5 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻêtsâh (“counsel”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “counsel” (ʻêtsâh) shape what this verse is saying?
Psalms 145:19 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «יִֽתֶּן» is Qal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and J. A. Alexander on Psalms read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 10 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
5 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.