What Does Lamentations 3:62 Mean in the King James?

The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

Lamentations 3:62 · KJV

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

The “device” against you grows from a root of murmuring and meditation, joining what reaches the lips with what is rehearsed in thought.

THE MEANING

When you are the subject of opposition, this verse names both the words spoken against you and the hostile thought kept turning against you all day. It sees the strain as sustained pressure, not a single remark.

THE ROOT

הֶגְיוֹנָם

hegyonam

GROWS FROM

הגה

hagah

To murmur, utter, or meditate, to make a low sound or turn thought over.

The Hebrew word behind “device” belongs to a root whose range includes murmuring, uttering, and meditating. The verse joins inward rehearsal to the lips: the hostility is spoken and kept in thought all day.

ALSO GROWS

hegyon: Musing, meditation, or murmuring.

הֶגְיוֹן

This related noun can describe inward or voiced rumination, making the “device” more than a finished plan: it is a thought being turned over.

yehgu: They imagine, meditate, or mutter.

יֶהְגּוּ

The same root appears in Psalm 2:1, where people “imagine” a vain thing; their plotting shares the texture of thought repeatedly rehearsed.

THE PATTERN

Hostility is carried by repeated thought and speech, taking shape in the mouth and in counsel.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

Psalm 2:1 · KJVThe people’s vain imagining uses a verb from the same root as Lamentations’ “device,” linking opposition to thought repeatedly turned over.

For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

Psalm 31:13 · KJVSlander and shared counsel become a deliberate plot against the speaker, showing hostility moving from speech into action.

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

Matthew 12:34 · KJVThe mouth voices what fills the heart, showing how inward content becomes speech.

THE THREAD

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

Psalm 2:1 · KJV

Psalm 2:1’s verb rendered “imagine” comes from the same root as the word rendered “device” here. The parallel brings a murmuring, meditative texture into both verses: hostile plotting is thought repeatedly rehearsed.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us