What Does Ecclesiastes 8:5 Mean in the King James?
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Hebrew repeats יֵדַע (yeda, “know”) where English gives “feel” and “discerneth,” binding the encounter with harm to the wise heart’s perception of time and judgment.
THE MEANING
When you keep the commandment, the verse says you know no harmful thing; your wise heart also knows time and judgment. The repeated verb makes experience and discernment part of one movement of knowing. Wisdom here is lived awareness of harm and of the fitting moment for judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that discernment is detached analysis: the same verb names what is experienced and what the wise heart perceives.
THE ROOT
יֵדַע
yeda
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
“feel / discerneth” in this verse is yeda. This same Hebrew verb appears twice in the verse, but English divides it into “feel” and “discerneth.” That split hides the link between knowing what is harmful and knowing the time and judgment a wise heart perceives.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun grows from the same root, connecting the wise heart’s knowing with knowledge itself.
yodea: A person who knows or understands.
יֹדֵעַ
This participle keeps knowing active, like the wise heart’s perception in the verse.
שֹׁמֵר
shomer
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
To guard, watch over, or keep.
“keepeth” in this verse is shomer. “Keep” can sound like simple compliance, while שֹׁמֵר (shomer, “one who guards”) gives the keeper the posture of a watchful guardian. The verse’s commandment is held in attentive care.
ALSO GROWS
mishmeret: A responsibility entrusted to someone for keeping.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
It shows that keeping can mean tending an entrusted charge, not merely retaining a rule.
shomrim: People who watch over or protect.
שֹׁמְרִים
This branch makes the watchful quality within “keepeth” visible.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
To judge, decide, or govern.
Mishpat belongs to the same root as the judge and the act of deciding. In this verse, judgment is something the wise heart knows in relation to time, not merely a verdict detached from the moment.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: One who judges or decides.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch shows the person who carries out the judgment the wise heart perceives.
shafat: The act of judging or deciding.
שָׁפַט
It connects “judgment” to a living act of discernment.
THE PATTERN
Wisdom joins guarding instruction with recognizing the fitting time and judgment.
He that keepeth the commandment keepeth his own soul; but he that despiseth his ways shall die.So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?THE THREAD
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.Ecclesiastes’ “keepeth” is שֹׁמֵר (shomer, “one who guards”), while Psalm 121’s “preserve” is יִשְׁמָר (yishmor, “he guards”); both grow from שׁמר (shamar, “guard, keep”). Each verse joins this guarding to רַע (ra, “evil” or “harm”), linking the keeper of the commandment with the one kept from harm.
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