What Does Psalm 112:10 Mean in the King James?
The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.
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 desire itself the thing that perishes: what wickedness grasps for does not outlast it.
THE MEANING
When the wicked see the righteous person’s honor, grief and anger rise; their teeth grind, and they themselves melt away. The desire they carry does not endure, it perishes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that craving can secure a lasting outcome: here the wicked person’s own desire is the thing that perishes.
THE ROOT
תֹּאבֵד
to'ved
GROWS FROM
אבד
To be lost, perish, or disappear.
The craving itself is the subject of “perish.” The root makes the ending sharper: what seems to drive the wicked person is itself lost.
ALSO GROWS
avad: To perish or be lost.
אָבַד
This verb names the disappearance that the verse assigns to the wicked person’s desire.
avaddon: Destruction or ruin.
אֲבַדּוֹן
This noun shows how the same root can name the destination as destruction.
תַּאֲוַת
ta'avath
GROWS FROM
אוה
To desire or long for.
“desire” in this verse is ta'avath. The word carries the shade of craving, not merely a neutral preference. Set beside אבד, “to be lost,” it shows that this longing has no enduring life of its own.
ALSO GROWS
avah: To desire or long for.
אָוָה
The verb makes the reaching quality of this desire visible.
ta'avah: Longing, desire, or craving.
תַּאֲוָה
This noun is the word family behind the desire that the verse says will perish.
THE PATTERN
Desire severed from what endures carries its own disappearance within it.
The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.THE THREAD
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.Psalm 1:6 uses the same Hebrew root, אבד, for the way of the ungodly: it perishes. Psalm 112:10 tightens the image, the wicked person’s desire is not merely frustrated along the way; that desire itself is lost.
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