What Does Psalm 106:41 Mean in the King James?
And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over 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 verse equates being placed into a hand with being ruled: the hand is the reach of power that hatred now holds.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of what happens when hostile power governs a people: those who hate them rule them. The “hand” names that power’s reach, and the next clause shows its effect as actual dominion. The sentence leaves the severity intact: this is a loss of freedom under those who wish them harm.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hatred is only an emotion without governing force; here, hostility becomes authority over the lives of the hated.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְּנֵם
vayyittenem
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, or place.
The root’s sense of “set” or “place” makes “gave them into the hand” a concrete transfer into another power’s reach. The verse names where they are placed, then shows what that placement means: their haters rule over them.
ALSO GROWS
nathun: Given, set in place.
נָתוּן
This form makes the root’s sense of placement visible in the verse’s transfer into another’s hand.
mattanah: Gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
It shares the root’s basic act of giving, showing how the same verb can describe a transfer whose outcome here is subjection.
וַיִּמְשְׁלוּ
vayyimshəlu
GROWS FROM
משל
Rule, govern, have dominion.
“ruled over” in this verse is vayyimshəlu. The haters are not merely hostile; this root also forms words for a ruler and dominion. Their hatred has become power exercised over the people in their hand.
ALSO GROWS
moshel: Ruler.
מֹשֵׁל
The people who hate them take the position of rulers in the verse.
memshalah: Dominion, rule, government.
מֶמְשָׁלָה
This branch makes clear that the verse describes exercised power, not hostility alone.
THE PATTERN
Being handed over makes visible which power has gained practical rule over a life.
And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:THE THREAD
And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.Daniel 1:2 uses נתן (nathan, “give” or “place”) with the same phrase, “into his hand.” In both verses, the hand is where being given becomes another ruler’s reach, making the transfer of power visible.
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