What Does Psalm 10:15 Mean in the King James?
Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
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 verse reaches beyond disarming the wicked: it seeks the wickedness itself until it can no longer be found.
THE MEANING
The verse is a present-tense plea for the wicked person’s power to be broken and his wickedness pursued until none is found. Its demand reaches both the means of harm and the wrongdoing itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that disabling one act of harm is enough while the wrongdoing behind it remains untouched.
THE ROOT
תִּדְרוֹשׁ
tidrosh
GROWS FROM
דרש
To seek, inquire into, or investigate; in some uses, to require or demand.
“seek out” in this verse is tidrosh. The word carries the force of inquiry, not a passing glance. The plea presses the search into wickedness until there is nothing left to find.
ALSO GROWS
darash: Seek or inquire.
דָּרַשׁ
This is the root verb behind “seek out,” showing that the verse calls for a deliberate search.
derishah: Inquiry or demand.
דְּרִישָׁה
This branch holds seeking and demanding together, echoing the verse’s insistence that the search reach its end.
רִשְׁעוֹ
rish'o
GROWS FROM
רשע
To act wickedly or be guilty; wrongdoing.
The same root names both the wicked person and his wickedness. The verse connects the agent of harm with the wrongdoing itself, then calls for that wrongdoing to disappear.
ALSO GROWS
rashaʿ: A wicked person.
רָשָׁע
The verse uses this related form for the person whose arm is to be broken.
reshaʿ: Wickedness or wrongdoing.
רֶשַׁע
This form names what the plea asks to be searched out until none remains.
THE PATTERN
The demand reaches both harmful agency and the wrongdoing behind it, until the wrongdoing has no remainder.
Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.THE THREAD
Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.The Hebrew root רשע appears in both verses for “wicked” and “wickedness,” tying the person to the wrongdoing. Psalm 7 asks for that wrongdoing to end; Psalm 10 voices the demand as a search that continues until none is found.
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