What Does Psalm 106:34 Mean in the King James?
They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the LORD commanded them:
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 root behind “destroy” makes the demand stark: make these peoples perish.
THE MEANING
This verse brings you to a command to destroy whole peoples and to the fact that they are not destroyed. The Hebrew verb names the demanded act as causing them to perish. The sentence leaves the violence of that command visible.
THE ROOT
הִשְׁמִידוּ
hishmidu
GROWS FROM
שׁמד
Destroy, annihilate, cause to perish.
“destroy” in this verse is hishmidu. The verb is in a causative form: the people are to make the nations perish. Its root names the demanded violence directly.
ALSO GROWS
hishmid: To destroy, cause to perish.
הִשְׁמִיד
This causative form makes the agents of destruction explicit.
nishmad: To be destroyed, perish.
נִשְׁמַד
The same root names the fate of those acted upon, holding agent and victim within one word family.
אָמַר
amar
GROWS FROM
אמר
Say, speak.
The Hebrew clause uses amar, literally “said,” where the KJV gives the contextual force as “commanded.” The root keeps the directive as spoken address, with the verse’s violent demand still in view.
ALSO GROWS
imrah: Utterance, saying, word.
אִמְרָה
This noun from the same root shows speech taking form as something heard and carried.
omer: Utterance, speech.
אֹמֶר
This branch keeps the command close to its root as spoken words.
THE PATTERN
What remains in a community’s midst can shape the way its members live.
But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.THE THREAD
But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.The next line moves from the failure named here to mingling among the nations and learning their practices. Together, the verses show the consequence the passage attaches to what remains among the people.
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