What Does Psalm 10:4 Mean in the King James?
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
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 word for “thoughts” points to devised schemes: God is excluded from the plans steering the life, not merely from a passing thought.
THE MEANING
This verse names wickedness as self-exaltation that refuses to seek God and makes no place for God in its plans. The absence reaches into what a person intends and pursues, not only what crosses the mind.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that leaving God out of one’s plans proves God is absent; the verse locates that exclusion in the person’s own posture and designs.
THE ROOT
מְזִמּוֹתָיו
mezimmotav
GROWS FROM
זמם
To devise, plan, or plot.
The word here carries the sense of “his schemes,” not just passing thoughts. Its root can describe planning or devising; in this verse, that planning is wicked, so the exclusion of God reaches into the designs he forms.
ALSO GROWS
zamam: To devise or plot.
זָמַם
This verb shows the deliberate shaping behind the “thoughts” in the verse.
mezimmah: A plan, device, or scheme; in some contexts, discretion.
מְזִמָּה
The same word family can describe a considered plan, revealing that the verse concerns what governs a person’s intentions.
zimmah: A wicked device or shameful scheme.
זִמָּה
This branch shows how devising turns toward harmful intent in a context like this one.
יִדְרֹשׁ
yidrosh
GROWS FROM
דרש
To seek, inquire, or require.
The verse describes an active refusal to seek or inquire after God. The word points beyond lacking information: the person does not turn toward the inquiry at all.
ALSO GROWS
darash: To seek or inquire.
דָּרַשׁ
This is the verb’s basic action: a directed search that the verse says is refused.
midrash: Inquiry or exposition.
מִדְרָשׁ
This related word preserves the root’s sense of seeking through inquiry.
גֹּבַהּ
govah
GROWS FROM
גבה
To be high, rise, or be elevated.
The Hebrew phrase pictures “the height of his nose,” giving the abstract word “pride” a bodily image of being raised up. That height stands alongside the refusal to seek God: self-exaltation frames the person’s plans.
ALSO GROWS
gabah: To rise or be high.
גָּבַהּ
The verb makes clear that the image behind pride is elevation.
gavoah: High or lofty.
גָּבֹהַּ
This adjective carries the same sense of height that the verse turns into an image of pride.
THE PATTERN
When someone treats God as absent, self-directed designs begin to govern what they pursue.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;THE THREAD
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,The word “deviseth” comes from the same root, זמם, as “thoughts” in Psalm 10:4. Proverbs shows those designs moving from the heart into action: what is devised becomes the path the feet follow.
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