What Does Habakkuk 1:11 Mean in the King James?
Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.
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
What looks like unstoppable power is only a passing ruach, breath and wind, and guilt begins when that force is treated as god.
THE MEANING
When power sweeps through your life, this verse names the danger: the force passes on, but treating it as a god leaves you culpable. Your might does not make itself its own authority; the verse holds it answerable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that sheer power answers to no higher measure dissolves here: the one who treats force as god is still guilty.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
To breathe or blow; the moving force of breath and wind, also used for a person’s spirit or disposition.
The word translated “mind” is ruach, the same Hebrew word that can mean breath and wind. A related form, revach, means room or relief: the verse’s inner force is something moving through, not an unchanging god.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Wind
רוּחַ
This sense makes the force in the verse feel like something that sweeps through and passes on.
ruach: Breath or spirit; a person’s disposition
רוּחַ
This sense opens “mind” to the living, moving inner state named by the same word.
revach: Room, relief, or respite
רֶוַח
This related form carries the sense of space opening; the shared consonants connect ruach’s movement with room and relief.
אָשַׁם
asham
GROWS FROM
אשם
To incur guilt or become liable.
“offend” in this verse is asham. The word gives the verse a charge of culpability: the forceful passing is not itself the final measure; what he credits as divine leaves him answerable. The same root names both guilt and the offering associated with making reparation.
ALSO GROWS
ashem: Guilty or liable
אָשֵׁם
This form makes the verse’s “offend” a matter of culpability.
asham: Guilt; also a reparation offering
אָשָׁם
The root links being liable with the language of reparation, underscoring that the act carries a cost.
עָבַר
avar
GROWS FROM
עבר
To cross over, pass through, or go beyond.
The verse’s motion is built into the root: he crosses onward, then the line names his guilt. The same consonants also form a word for the far side, so “pass over” carries the shape of crossing a boundary.
ALSO GROWS
avar: To cross, pass, or go beyond
עָבַר
This is the verb used for his passing onward in the verse.
ever: Beyond, across, or the other side
עֵבֶר
This related form gives the crossing a destination beyond the point where it began.
THE PATTERN
Power that becomes its own authority turns force into culpability.
For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?THE THREAD
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.Psalm 103:16 uses the same roots: ruach for wind and avar for passing over. There the wind is gone; Habakkuk’s line lets that passing force name an inner disposition too, then exposes the guilt of treating it as divine.
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