What Does Psalm 37:25 Mean in the King James?
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
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 word for “seed” also means offspring, so the promise reaches from the aligned person into the life that comes after.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now as a lifetime’s witness: the aligned person is not forsaken, and their descendants are not left begging for bread. By naming both bread and seed, it holds bodily need and a family’s future within one promise.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being in need now means the aligned person has been abandoned and their family has no future.
THE ROOT
זַרְעוֹ
zarʿo
GROWS FROM
זרע
To sow or scatter seed.
The same word names seed and offspring, so the line moves from one person’s need to the future of their family without changing its image. What is sown becomes what continues.
ALSO GROWS
zeraʿ: Seed; offspring.
זֶרַע
Shows that “his seed” can point to descendants, extending the verse’s claim beyond one lifetime.
zaraʿ: To sow.
זָרַע
Makes the family’s future part of the image of what grows from a life.
zoreʿa: Sower.
זֹרֵעַ
Keeps the verse’s language connected to the act of sowing and what follows from it.
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
To be right or just; alignment.
“righteous” in this verse is tsaddiq. The word carries the sense of alignment through its root family, which includes terms for justice and rightness. Here that alignment stands beside bread and descendants, tying it to the life that continues.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness; justice.
צֶדֶק
Shows that the “righteous” person belongs to a word family concerned with what is rightly ordered.
tsedaqah: Justice; righteous action.
צְדָקָה
Links the person described as righteous with the lived expression of alignment.
נֶעֱזָב
neʿezav
GROWS FROM
עזב
To leave or abandon.
“forsaken” in this verse is neʿezav. The Hebrew word comes from the verb “to leave” or “abandon,” giving the claim a relational force: the aligned person is not left behind. The verse then carries that assurance forward to their seed and its bread.
ALSO GROWS
ʿazav: To leave; abandon.
עָזַב
Names the action the verse says does not happen to the righteous.
ʿazuvah: Forsaken; desolate.
עֲזוּבָה
Shows the same root describing the state of someone or something left behind.
THE PATTERN
The text links alignment with provision, carrying its promise from present need into the future of what is sown.
The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?THE THREAD
The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.Both verses use צַדִּיק (tsaddiq), from צדק, the root of rightness and alignment. Proverbs names hunger directly, bringing Psalm 37’s image of seed begging for bread into sharper focus.
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