What Does Psalm 109:11 Mean in the King James?
Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.
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
A creditor’s snare and strangers’ plunder strip away both what is held and the yield of toil.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks in the language of total dispossession: a creditor ensnares everything held, and outsiders carry off the yield of labor. Even what is earned through toil offers no protection from being stripped away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that ownership and hard work guarantee control over what a person possesses or produces.
THE ROOT
יְגִיעוֹ
yegiaʿo
GROWS FROM
יגע
To toil and grow weary.
“labour” in this verse is yegiaʿo. יְגִיעַ (yegiaʿ) can name both toil and its yield, while יָגֵעַ (yāgēaʿ) describes the weariness it brings. The verse says that the product of spent effort passes into others’ hands.
ALSO GROWS
yegiaʿ: Toil; the produce of toil.
יְגִיעַ
Psalm 128:2 uses this word for the labor of one’s hands that the worker eats; here strangers take that yield.
yāgēaʿ: Weary; worn from exertion.
יָגֵעַ
This branch keeps the fatigue inside the idea of labor, so what is plundered represents effort spent as well as property.
נֹשֶׁה
nōsheh
GROWS FROM
נשה
To lend; to be a creditor.
Under “extortioner” stands נֹשֶׁה (nōsheh), a creditor. Its word family connects the person who lends with the loan itself, making debt the means by which the verse’s possessions become vulnerable.
ALSO GROWS
nāšâ: To lend; extend a loan.
נָשָׁה
The verb ties the creditor to the lending relationship that frames the seizure in this verse.
maššeh: A loan; a debt.
מַשֶּׁה
This related noun names the loan itself, linking the creditor and the claim through the same root.
THE PATTERN
Possessions accumulated through labor can pass out of their maker’s hands without their consent.
Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?THE THREAD
For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.Both verses use יְגִיעַ (yegiaʿ), labor and its yield. Psalm 128 pictures the worker eating that yield; here strangers take it.
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