What Does Psalm 110:5 Mean in the King James?
The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.
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 makes wrath a burning nostril and gives that anger a political target: kings are struck through.
THE MEANING
The Lord is at your right hand, and no king stands beyond the reach of his judgment. When the day of his anger comes, the verse says plainly that kings are struck through.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that rulers are beyond judgment falls away here: no crown places a king beyond the reach of divine force.
THE ROOT
אַפּוֹ
appo from af
GROWS FROM
אנף
ʾ-n-p
To flare in anger, pictured through the nose or nostrils.
The KJV’s “wrath” names the anger, while the Hebrew word carries the concrete image of the burning nostril. Here that anger has a day and an object: kings are struck through.
ALSO GROWS
af: Nose or nostril; also anger or wrath.
אַף
This branch keeps the verse’s anger connected to a bodily image.
anaph: To be angry, to flare with anger.
אָנַף
This verb shows that the word for wrath belongs to a family that pictures anger as flaring.
appayim: Nostrils; used in expressions for anger, as in erekh appayim, slow to flare.
אַפַּיִם
This form preserves the nostril image within expressions about anger.
מְלָכִים
melakhim
GROWS FROM
מלך
m-l-k
To rule or reign; to exercise kingship.
Kings, reigning, and kingdom share one root: the office, its action, and its dominion belong to the same word family. The verse’s force falls on those who embody that visible sovereignty.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: A king; one who rules.
מֶלֶךְ
This singular form shows that the verse’s kings belong to a shared root of rule.
malakh: To reign or rule.
מָלַךְ
This verb makes explicit the action carried within the word for kings.
malkhut: Kingdom, kingship, or royal dominion.
מַלְכוּת
This branch extends the same root from the ruler to the dominion he holds.
THE PATTERN
When divine judgment arrives, it reaches the seats of earthly power and exposes their limits.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.THE THREAD
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.Psalm 2 uses the same Hebrew word family for anger, af, preserving the image of nostril-flaring heat. Here, too, anger does not remain inward; it becomes an act upon those addressed.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us