What Does Psalm 34:21 Mean in the King James?
Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
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 names evil itself as the killer of the wicked and hatred of the aligned as a path into guilt.
THE MEANING
Evil is not only what the wicked do or face; here, it becomes the force that brings them to death. Hatred directed at the righteous, the aligned, leaves the hater culpable and answerable for that hostility.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that hating what is right is harmless when it remains private: the hater becomes answerable for that hostility.
THE ROOT
יֶאְשָׁמוּ
ye'eshmu
GROWS FROM
אשם
ʾ-sh-m
to incur guilt, be culpable, or be held liable
The final verb carries guilt and liability, so those who hate the righteous are left answerable for that hatred. The KJV’s “desolate” can hold the ruin of that condition.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāshām: Guilt or liability; also a reparation offering
אָשָׁם
This branch makes culpability concrete as something borne and addressed, sharpening the hater’s liability.
ʾashmāh: Guilt or culpability
אַשְׁמָה
This noun names the state carried by the person described by the verse’s final verb.
רָשָׁע
rasha
GROWS FROM
רשע
r-sh-ʿ
to act wickedly, be guilty, or be condemned
The word belongs to a root that names both wicked action and culpability. The verse places the wicked person and the destructive force of evil in one chain of consequence.
ALSO GROWS
rasha: To act wickedly or be guilty
רָשַׁע
The verbal branch links the person called wicked with the action that makes the verse’s consequence intelligible.
rish'ah: Wickedness or wrongdoing
רִשְׁעָה
This noun appears in the same word family as “wicked”; Proverbs 11:5 makes the connection explicit by saying the wicked fall by their own wickedness.
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ts-d-q
to be right or just; alignment
The word for the righteous belongs to the same seed that names rightness and justice. Hatred aimed at them is set against alignment itself.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness, justice, or alignment
צֶדֶק
This branch shows the alignment carried by the word “righteous.”
tsedaqah: Righteousness or justice expressed in action
צְדָקָה
This branch lets righteousness be seen as lived alignment, not merely a label.
THE PATTERN
Destructive choices carry their consequence within them and return upon the one who sets them in motion.
The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.Proverbs uses the same רשע (r-sh-ʿ, the root meaning to act wickedly or be guilty) in “the wicked” and “wickedness.” It makes explicit the link Psalm 34:21 compresses: wickedness becomes the path by which the wicked fall.
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