What Does Psalm 130:3 Mean in the King James?
If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
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 “mark” is שָׁמַר (shamar, “keep” or “guard”): the verse asks who could stand if the LORD kept every crookedness in view.
THE MEANING
The question places the reader before the LORD with every crookedness held in view, and asks who can remain standing there. It leaves the reader exposed rather than offering a defense.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a person can secure standing before God by presenting a clean enough record.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁמֹר
tishmor
GROWS FROM
שמר
sh-m-r
To keep, guard, watch over, or preserve.
The Hebrew verb carries the sense of keeping something under watch, alongside the accounting sense of “mark.” The verse imagines crookedness retained in view before the LORD and asks whether anyone can remain standing under that gaze.
ALSO GROWS
shamar: To keep, guard, or preserve.
שָׁמַר
This basic verb shows the watchful sense within the word translated “mark.”
shomer: A guard or watchman.
שֹׁמֵר
The same root describes someone who keeps watch, sharpening the image of crookedness held in view.
mishmeret: A charge, guard, or watch.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch connects keeping with what is entrusted to a watchful charge.
עֲוֹנוֹת
avonot
GROWS FROM
עון
ʿ-w-n
Crookedness, guilt, or culpability.
“iniquities” in this verse is avonot. The verse names what is kept in view as crookedness, carrying both the bent action and the guilt bound to it. The plural gives the question its full weight: it concerns the whole field of crookedness, not one isolated failure.
ALSO GROWS
avon: Crookedness or guilt; the singular form.
עָוֹן
The singular shows the same word’s core sense beneath the plural in the verse.
avonot: Crookednesses or guilts; the plural form.
עֲוֹנוֹת
The verse’s plural gathers the many crooked turns into what the LORD keeps in view.
יַעֲמֹד
ya’amod
GROWS FROM
עמד
ʿ-m-d
To stand, remain, or hold one’s place.
“stand” in this verse is ya’amod. The question is not merely who is innocent; it asks who can remain standing before the LORD. The root makes the image one of holding a place under scrutiny.
ALSO GROWS
amad: To stand or remain.
עָמַד
This is the basic verb behind the verse’s question about who can hold their place.
ammud: A pillar or column.
עַמּוּד
A pillar’s rooted, upright position gives a concrete picture of what it means to stand.
he’emid: To cause to stand or set upright.
הֶעֱמִיד
This related form frames standing as an established position, not a passing gesture.
THE PATTERN
No human can establish standing before God by relying on their own record.
I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.THE THREAD
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.The word translated “keep” here is שָׁמַר (shamar, “guard” or “keep”), the same root rendered “mark” in Psalm 130:3. Genesis uses it for guarding a garden; here the object kept in view is crookedness, so the shared root makes the difference in what is being held striking.
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