Psalm 23 · a question people ask
Does 23:6 say "dwell" or "return"?
The WEB reads, "and I will dwell in the LORD’s house forever" (23:6). The Hebrew word is veshavti. The Westminster Leningrad Codex, as tagged by the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible, takes it as a form of yashav, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "sit, remain, dwell" (tap dwell). Letter for letter and vowel for vowel, the same word is tagged as a form of shuv, the verb of 23:3's restores, in nine other verses of that text, among them "so that I come again to my father’s house in peace" (Genesis 28:21). Elsewhere the text writes this form of yashav with its first letter, yashavti, as in "I have not sat with deceitful men" (Psalm 26:4). So the word can be read either way: I will dwell, as the tag and the WEB read it, or I will return. Another psalm has yashav with the same house and the same days: "that I may dwell in the LORD’s house all the days of my life" (Psalm 27:4). And forever in 23:6 is le'orekh yamim, literally "for length of days"; Brown-Driver-Briggs gives orekh as "length" and "length of time". These notes don't choose between the readings.
The verses
“Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the LORD’s house forever.”
“He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
“so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, and the LORD will be my God,”
“I have not sat with deceitful men, neither will I go in with hypocrites.”