What Does Psalm 25:3 Mean in the King James?
Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
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 Hebrew pairs waiting as expectation with betrayal that comes to nothing: shame falls on the treacherous, not on those who wait toward God.
THE MEANING
When your expectation is turned toward God, the verse speaks against the fear that waiting ends in disgrace. It sets that waiting beside treachery that spends itself for emptiness. These paths do not arrive at the same end.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse undoes is that waiting on God leaves you finally disgraced; it places shame with betrayal instead.
THE ROOT
קָוָה
qavah
GROWS FROM
קוה
To wait for, look toward, or hope expectantly.
English “wait” can sound like empty delay, but qavah carries expectation directed toward someone. Its branches make that shade visible: waiting and hope share a root.
ALSO GROWS
tiqvah: Hope, expectation.
תִּקְוָה
The related noun names the expectancy held in waiting.
miqveh: Hope or expectation; also a gathering or pool.
מִקְוֶה
This related form shows how the root can carry both expectation and gathering.
בָּגַד
bagad
GROWS FROM
בגד
To act treacherously or betray trust.
The Hebrew word translated “transgress” names betrayal: a breaking of trust, not simply a mistake. The verse places that betrayal on the side that ends in shame.
ALSO GROWS
boged: A betrayer; one who acts treacherously.
בּוֹגֵד
This is the form used for the people whose conduct the verse contrasts with waiting.
begidah: Treachery, betrayal.
בְּגִידָה
The noun makes the relational fracture in bagad explicit.
רֵיקָם
reqam
GROWS FROM
ריק
Empty, hollow, or to no purpose.
“without cause” in this verse is reqam. Reqam adds the shade of emptiness or futility to the treachery. The contrast is striking: expectant waiting is not empty, while betrayal comes to nothing.
ALSO GROWS
req: Empty or void.
רֵיק
This adjective carries the root’s basic sense of emptiness.
riq: Emptiness, vanity, or something done in vain.
רִיק
This noun brings out the futility beneath “without cause.”
THE PATTERN
Expectation directed toward the LORD does not culminate in shame.
For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.THE THREAD
And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.Psalm 25:3 and Isaiah 49:23 use forms of the same Hebrew root, qavah, for waiting toward God. Isaiah repeats the assurance that this expectation does not end in shame.
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