What Does Psalm 1:5 Mean in the King James?
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
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 Hebrew makes judgment and belonging one test: the single verb “stand” governs both the court and the righteous assembly.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now: judgment exposes whether your footing holds, and that same footing determines whether you have a place in the assembly of the aligned. Those who miss the mark do not stand within that assembly; the line also names a coming reckoning.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being near a righteous community is enough to belong to it, whatever one’s way of life.
THE ROOT
יָקֻמוּ
yāqumū
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
Rise, stand, be established.
The Hebrew gives “stand” once, then lets it govern both halves: the ungodly do not stand in judgment, and sinners do not stand in the assembly. The root also gives מָקוֹם (maqom), “place,” so the exclusion touches both holding one’s footing under judgment and having a place among the gathered.
ALSO GROWS
maqom: Place, standing place.
מָקוֹם
This word from the same root links standing with having a place in the assembly.
heqim: Raise up, establish.
הֵקִים
It shows the root’s sense of being made to stand or established, sharpening what the verse says the ungodly cannot do.
חַטָּאִים
ḥaṭṭāʾîm
GROWS FROM
חטא
Miss, err; miss the mark.
The word translated “sinners” names those characterized by missing. Set beside “the righteous,” it makes the assembly’s boundary vivid: those who miss do not stand among the aligned.
ALSO GROWS
ḥeṭ: A miss; missing the mark.
חֵטְא
This noun makes the root’s image of missing explicit in the verse’s description of sinners.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Missing; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
It carries the same root into the language of addressing what has gone wrong.
צַדִּיקִים
ṣaddîqîm
GROWS FROM
צדק
Be just, right, aligned.
The assembly is marked by alignment: “righteous” carries rightness into a shared gathering. That makes the contrast with those who miss the mark concrete, rather than leaving it as a pair of abstract labels.
ALSO GROWS
ṣedeq: Justice; alignment.
צֶדֶק
This noun names the quality that characterizes the assembly in the verse.
ṣĕdāqâ: Justice, righteousness; right action.
צְדָקָה
It extends the same root into acts that express right alignment.
THE PATTERN
Judgment reveals whether a person can stand in God’s presence and belong to the assembly of the aligned.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.THE THREAD
Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?Both verses use קום (qum), the root meaning rise or stand. Psalm 24 asks who can stand in the LORD’s holy place; Psalm 1 answers with its boundary: the ungodly do not stand in judgment, and sinners do not stand in the assembly of the aligned.
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