What Does Psalm 37:20 Mean in the King James?
But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
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 makes opposition look rich only to show that it cannot keep its shape: it ends as smoke.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s enemies have no permanence: what looks rich and substantial is already passing into smoke. This verse meets the reader wherever hostility seems immovable, naming its horizon as disappearance. The end is consumption and smoke.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that opposition to the LORD is permanent or ultimate dissolves here; the verse names its end as disappearance.
THE ROOT
יֹאבֵדוּ
yōʾvēdū
GROWS FROM
אבד
ʾ-b-d
To be lost, perish, or disappear.
“perish” in this verse is yōʾvēdū. This root holds both perishing and being lost, a connection that the English word can hide. The smoke completes the picture: the enemies do not simply lose a contest; they vanish from view.
ALSO GROWS
ʾābad: To perish or be lost.
אָבַד
It is the verb behind the verse’s opening word, linking the enemies’ end with loss.
ʾăvaddōn: Destruction or ruin.
אֲבַדּוֹן
This noun from the same root gives the idea of being lost a fuller sense of ruin.
כָּלוּ
kālū
GROWS FROM
כלה
k-l-h
To come to an end, be finished, or be consumed.
The verse repeats the same Hebrew verb twice: first “they shall consume,” then “into smoke shall they consume away.” The repetition holds the image on one ending, their being finished, while the smoke makes that ending visible.
ALSO GROWS
kālāh: To come to an end or be complete.
כָּלָה
This form shows how the root’s sense of completion can also mean reaching an end.
killāh: To bring to an end, finish, or consume.
כִּלָּה
This form carries the root’s ending into an action that finishes or consumes something.
יְקַר
yĕqār
GROWS FROM
יקר
y-q-r
To be precious, costly, or highly valued.
The Hebrew word rendered “fat” also carries a sense of value and splendor. The image holds both material richness and what appears precious, then shows it passing into smoke.
ALSO GROWS
yāqār: Precious, costly, or rare.
יָקָר
This related form gives the image of the lambs a sense of value as well as fullness.
yĕqār: Worth, honor, or splendor.
יְקָר
This noun’s sense of splendor deepens the image of something that looks substantial yet vanishes.
THE PATTERN
What appears lasting can disappear: Scripture pictures the wicked and even the visible world vanishing like smoke, and human life as vapor.
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.THE THREAD
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.Both verses use the Hebrew root אבד (ʾābad, “perish” or “be lost”). Psalm 68:2 adds smoke and melting wax, making the vanishing in Psalm 37:20 visible.
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