What Does Psalm 106:27 Mean in the King James?
To overthrow their seed also among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands.
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 scattering reaches beyond where a people lives: it reaches what they pass on.
THE MEANING
The verse names the undoing of continuity: their seed, their offspring and continuation, is made to fall among the nations, while the people themselves are scattered across lands. It speaks now wherever displacement reaches both a people’s home and what they pass on, holding the loss without softening it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it dissolves is that lineage remains secure when a people is displaced; here even the seed falls among the nations.
THE ROOT
לְהַפִּיל
lehappil
GROWS FROM
נפל
To fall; in this causative form, to cause to fall.
English “overthrow” can sound like an event that ends with the present generation; the Hebrew causative lands directly on their seed. The damage reaches through lineage, making descendants part of the collapse.
ALSO GROWS
naphal: To fall.
נָפַל
The shared root makes the people’s fate a caused falling, not simply a change of location.
mappalah: A fall, ruin, or downfall.
מַפָּלָה
This branch carries the root’s fall into the language of ruin, sharpening what it means for the seed to be brought down.
זַרְעָם
zar'am
GROWS FROM
זרע
To sow; seed, sowing, and offspring.
זֶרַע (zera, seed or offspring) carries both planted seed and the generations that follow. That double sense makes the scattering an assault on continuity as well as place.
ALSO GROWS
zera: Seed or offspring.
זֶרַע
This noun names both the seed itself and a people’s descendants, so the verse’s loss reaches into what comes after.
zaraʿ: To sow.
זָרַע
The verb shows seed as something planted and spread, giving the image of a future that can be carried beyond its home.
וּלְזָרוֹתָם
ulezarotam
GROWS FROM
זרה
To scatter, disperse, or winnow.
The sound of זֶרַע (zera, seed) returns in זָרָה (zarah, scatter): both begin with Z-R, but their roots differ in the final consonant, ע (ayin) and ה (he). That near-echo binds seed to scattering by sound, while the distinct roots keep the connection poetic rather than claiming they are one root.
ALSO GROWS
zarah: To scatter or winnow.
זָרָה
The verb directly names the dispersal that reaches the people across the lands.
mizreh: A winnowing shovel or fork.
מִזְרֶה
This branch evokes scattering by separation, as material is spread and sorted.
THE PATTERN
Scattering breaks a people’s rootedness by carrying them across regions and nations.
And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judæa and Samaria, except the apostles.Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.THE THREAD
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.Psalm 106 names זֶרַע (zera, seed or offspring) as what falls among the nations; Psalm 126 names זֶרַע as what is carried through tears toward harvest. The shared root keeps the future in view where the present verse speaks in the hard language of scattering.
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