What Does Psalm 109:15 Mean in the King James?
Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
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 holds continual presence before the LORD beside severance from the earth’s remembrance.
THE MEANING
The line places continued presence before the LORD beside the removal of remembrance from earth. Its judgment reaches beyond the act or person named to the trace that remains in communal memory.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief that divine notice guarantees a lasting earthly legacy is undone: the verse holds presence before the LORD together with erasure from earth.
THE ROOT
זִכְרָם
zikhrām
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
Remember, call to mind, or mention.
The English “memory” can sound like a private faculty; this root also carries remembering, mention, and memorial, the ways someone remains present in speech and communal attention. To cut off their remembrance is to sever that continuing trace from the earth.
ALSO GROWS
zākar: Remember or call to mind.
זָכַר
The verb shows that remembrance is an active keeping in mind, not only a stored recollection.
zikkārōn: Memorial or remembrance.
זִכָּרוֹן
This branch makes memory something that can be marked and carried forward beyond private thought.
zēkher: Remembrance, mention, or memorial.
זֵכֶר
This related noun names the continuing trace that the verse says is cut off.
וְיִכָּרֵת
veyikkārēt
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
Cut, sever, or cut off.
“cut off” in this verse is veyikkārēt. The verb gives the judgment the force of severance: the remembrance is not merely neglected but cut away. The same root appears in the idiom for making a covenant, כָּרַת בְּרִית (kārat berīt), literally “cut a covenant,” showing how this root can mark a decisive bond as well as a decisive break.
ALSO GROWS
kārat: Cut or sever.
כָּרַת
This is the root verb behind the verse’s image of remembrance being cut off.
kārat berīt: Literally, cut a covenant; idiomatically, make a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same root marks a decisive act of binding in this idiom, while here it marks severance.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats remembrance as a continuing trace that can be erased, decay, or be kept.
Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.THE THREAD
Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.“Remembrance” here is זֵכֶר (zēkher), from the same root זכר (z-k-r) as זִכְרָם (zikhrām), “their remembrance,” in Psalm 109:15. Deuteronomy places the erasure of a name beside “thou shalt not forget it,” bringing the difference between a public trace removed and a charge retained into view.
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