What Does Psalm 10:13 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
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 heart’s contempt rests on the assumption that God will never come seeking what it has hidden.
THE MEANING
Contempt here begins with the claim that God will not seek the matter out. The verse brings that claim into the open: what feels unaccounted for remains within the reach of divine inquiry.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that what goes unseen can never be called to account.
THE ROOT
תִדְרֹשׁ
tidrosh
GROWS FROM
דרש
To seek, inquire into, investigate, or demand.
The word translated “require” carries the sense of seeking the matter out. The heart claims God will not pursue or inquire into what has happened.
ALSO GROWS
midrash: Inquiry or exposition
מִדְרָשׁ
This branch names a searching that draws out what is present, echoing the verse’s idea of seeking a matter out.
derishah: Inquiry or demand
דְּרִישָׁה
The same root can name a claim pursued, the very pursuit the heart assumes will not come.
נָאַץ
na'ats
GROWS FROM
נאץ
To spurn, despise, or treat with contempt.
“contemn” in this verse is na'ats. Contempt is more than an inward opinion here: it takes shape as a claim about what God will not do. The verse links despising God to treating divine inquiry as something that will never reach this matter.
ALSO GROWS
ni'atsu: They spurned or provoked
נִאֲצוּ
This form shows contempt as an active rejection, fitting the verse’s portrayal of contempt expressed through a confident claim.
ni'uts: Blasphemy or contemptuous speech
נִיאוּץ
The root can also describe contempt voiced against God; here the voice of contempt appears as the heart’s assertion that God will not seek the matter.
THE PATTERN
The claim that wrongdoing stays unaccounted for depends on believing no one will search it out.
And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.THE THREAD
When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.“Inquisition” translates the same Hebrew root, דרש (darash), as “require” in Psalm 10:13. One verse names the claim that God will not seek; the other uses that same root for God’s seeking of the bloodshed and the cry connected to it.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us