What Does Psalm 37:15 Mean in the King James?
Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.
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
A weapon aimed outward is already carrying its return path inward.
THE MEANING
The verse names a present reversal: the sword enters the wielder’s own heart, and the bow that extends that force breaks. Harm does not stay at a safe distance from the one who carries it; its movement reaches inward, and its instrument loses force.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that harm can be projected outward without entering and altering the one who directs it.
THE ROOT
בְּלִבָּם
belibam
GROWS FROM
לבב
levav
The inner person: the heart as the center of thought, intention, and feeling.
The sword’s destination is not another body at a distance but the wielder’s inner center. Hebrew heart language includes thought and intention as well as feeling, so the line shows violence entering the self that directs it.
ALSO GROWS
lev: Heart, inner self
לֵב
This is the inward place the sword enters.
levav: Heart, mind, inner person
לְבָב
This form keeps the heart connected to the person’s inward direction, not emotion alone.
חַרְבָּם
charbam
GROWS FROM
חרב
charav
Become dry or desolate; lay waste.
The word for sword shares the root חרב (charav, become desolate). The instrument already carries an echo of devastation, and the verse turns that devastation back toward the one wielding it.
ALSO GROWS
charav: Become dry, desolate
חָרַב
The shared root gives the sword’s destructive force an inward destination.
chorev: Dryness, desolation
חֹרֶב
Desolation names the condition associated with the sword’s root.
תִּשָּׁבַרְנָה
tishavarnah
GROWS FROM
שבר
shavar
Break, shatter.
“broken” in this verse is tishavarnah. The same Hebrew root שבר (shavar, break or shatter) appears in Isaiah’s “brokenhearted.” Here it names the bow’s collapse; there it names a heart that is bound up, letting one root hold both fracture and the possibility of mending.
ALSO GROWS
shever: A break, fracture, ruin
שֶׁבֶר
It names the collapse of the bow’s force.
nishbar: Broken, shattered
נִשְׁבָּר
This form shares the root used for “brokenhearted” in Isaiah 61:1.
THE PATTERN
Violence aimed outward returns upon its source and breaks the power that carries it.
He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.THE THREAD
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root שבר (shavar, break or shatter) in “brokenhearted.” The shared root links broken bows with a heart’s fracture, while Isaiah names binding-up and release as what meets that brokenness.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us