What Does Psalm 26:10 Mean in the King James?
In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.
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 hidden scheme becomes visible in what the hands are willing to hold.
THE MEANING
A scheme takes shape in the hands that carry it, and the right hand is full of payments that compromise its action. The verse speaks now wherever what someone accepts reveals the intention behind it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an intention stays hidden as long as it remains unspoken: what the hands take can disclose the scheme.
THE ROOT
זִמָּה
zimmah
GROWS FROM
זמם
zamam
To devise, plan, or plot; in this verse, a harmful scheme.
“mischief” in this verse is zimmah. The word points to an intention formed in advance, not trouble that happens by accident. The hands reveal that the inward design has become action.
ALSO GROWS
zamam: To devise or plan.
זָמַם
The verb names the forming of an intention; the psalm shows that intention taking shape in what the hands do.
mezimmah: A plan, device, or scheme.
מְזִמָּה
This related noun appears in Proverbs 24:8 for a calculated design, illuminating the deliberateness inside “mischief” here.
שֹׁחַד
shochad
GROWS FROM
שחד
shachad
To give an inducement or bribe; the noun names the payment offered to sway someone.
“bribes” in this verse is shochad. This word can carry the sense of a gift as well as a bribe, while the verse makes the corrupting purpose plain. The right hand is not merely holding something; it is occupied by a payment meant to influence.
ALSO GROWS
shachad: To offer a bribe or inducement.
שָׁחַד
The verbal form names the act of using payment to incline another’s decision.
shochad: A gift, payment, or bribe.
שֹׁחַד
The noun can be rendered “gift” in Deuteronomy 16:19; there, as here, context reveals its power to distort.
THE PATTERN
A concealed design becomes visible through payments that bend what a person does or judges.
And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous.A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.THE THREAD
Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.The word rendered “gift” here is שֹׁחַד (shochad), meaning a gift or bribe, the same Hebrew word rendered “bribes” in the psalm. Deuteronomy names the effect: the payment blinds and twists judgment, showing what fills the hand also bends its action.
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