What Does Psalm 109:8 Mean in the King James?
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
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 word translated “office” names an entrusted charge, so the verse joins a wish for a life to be cut short with a wish for its responsibility to pass to someone else.
THE MEANING
The verse gives direct voice to a wish that this person’s days be few and that another take their post. It binds a person’s death to the transfer of the charge they held.
THE ROOT
פְּקֻדָּתוֹ
peqûddātô
GROWS FROM
פקד
paqad
To attend to, appoint, muster, or oversee.
English “office” can sound like a title alone, but this root also carries the sense of attending to and overseeing a charge. The verse wishes not only for the holder to be gone, but for the responsibility attached to that place to pass to another.
ALSO GROWS
pāqad: To attend to, visit, appoint, or muster.
פָּקַד
This verb’s range links oversight with attending to or assigning people and responsibilities; the office in this verse is a charge someone holds.
pāqîd: An officer or overseer.
פָּקִיד
This related noun names the person who holds authority or responsibility, making the verse’s replacement a change of steward as well as title.
peqûddâh: A charge, oversight, or office.
פְּקֻדָּה
This is the noun form behind “his office”; its range lets the verse’s transfer include the responsibility itself.
THE PATTERN
When a person is removed from a position, the authority or charge they held can pass to another.
But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.THE THREAD
And to the office of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest pertaineth the oil for the light, and the sweet incense, and the daily meat offering, and the anointing oil, and the oversight of all the tabernacle, and of all that therein is, in the sanctuary, and in the vessels thereof.Numbers uses the same noun, פְּקֻדָּה (peqûddâh, charge or oversight), for Eleazar’s assigned responsibilities. That connection shows how the Psalm’s “office” can mean a concrete charge that passes from one holder to another.
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