What Does Psalm 11:2 Mean in the King James?
For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
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
Hebrew pictures the bow as something trodden into readiness, from the same root as “way,” while its target is named as straight of heart.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you now about concealed hostility: harm can be prepared beyond your sight and aimed at the straightness of your heart. Your uprightness does not control another person’s intent, and being targeted does not make your heart crooked.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that upright people cannot be targeted, or that being targeted proves they are at fault.
THE ROOT
יְשָׁרֵי
yishrei
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
To be straight, level, or direct.
English “upright” can sound only moral, but the Hebrew also holds the concrete sense of straightness and levelness. The arrow is aimed at the person whose heart is described as straight; the verse locates the attack against inner alignment.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight, upright, right.
יָשָׁר
This related form shows that uprightness carries the sense of straightness within the Hebrew word itself.
mishor: Level place, plain.
מִישׁוֹר
This branch preserves the root’s spatial sense of level ground, adding physical depth to the description of the heart.
יִדְרְכוּן
yidrekhun
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
To tread, step, or press by stepping.
English “bend” records the bow’s shape, while the Hebrew verb preserves the bodily action of treading or pressing a bow into readiness. The same root names a way or path, holding treading and movement within the image of the attack.
ALSO GROWS
derek: Way, path.
דֶּרֶךְ
The same root joins the action of treading to a way or path, keeping movement inside the verse’s image.
midrakh: Footstep, place trodden.
מִדְרָךְ
This branch echoes the physical pressure carried by the bow verb, which the English “bend” leaves unseen.
THE PATTERN
The text repeatedly portrays hostility as something directed at the upright, through weapons, persecution, or false speech.
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.THE THREAD
Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.The same root יָשָׁר (yashar, straight or upright) names the person under threat here. Psalm 37:37 names שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) as that person’s end, opening the image beyond the moment the arrow is aimed.
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