What Does Psalm 140:12 Mean in the King James?
I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor.
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 LORD’s care becomes a legal act: he takes the poor person’s case into judgment and secures their right.
THE MEANING
The LORD takes up the case of the one being pressed down and upholds what is due to the one in need. His care is active: the verse says he does justice for them now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Need does not make your claim disappear, and affliction does not make you invisible to God. The belief that only the powerful can secure a hearing is undone here.
THE ROOT
דִּין
din
GROWS FROM
דין
To judge, adjudicate, or decide a case.
The word translated “cause” names a matter brought under judgment. Paired with “right,” it pictures the LORD actively taking up the afflicted person’s case and upholding what is due.
ALSO GROWS
dayyan: judge
דַּיָּן
The judge is the one who decides the דין (din, case); the afflicted person’s concern is treated as a matter for judgment, not a private ache.
dinim: judgments; legal cases
דִּינִים
This plural keeps the word in the sphere of concrete cases needing a decision, making the LORD’s action specific to the needy person’s claim.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, decide, or govern a case.
מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, right or justice) belongs to the same root family as judging. The verse moves from the case being taken up to the right being upheld: justice is something the LORD does.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: judge
שֹׁפֵט
This names the one who exercises judgment; the verse presents the LORD as acting in that role for the needy.
shafat: he judged; he decided a case
שָׁפַט
The verb makes judgment an action, echoing the verse’s claim that the LORD actively upholds the poor person’s right.
THE PATTERN
God’s justice shows itself by taking up the cause of people made vulnerable by affliction and need.
He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.THE THREAD
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.Psalm 82:3 uses שפט (shafat, “judge”) in “Defend,” joining the same judging root found in מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, “right”) here with the poor and afflicted. The shared root reveals justice as taking up their case directly.
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