What Does Psalm 40:15 Mean in the King James?
Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
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 root behind “desolate” also means “appalled,” so the verse turns the gloaters’ cry back on them: they are pictured stunned by the ruin they invite.
THE MEANING
When others delight in your humiliation, the verse gives their “Aha” a consequence: it asks for desolation to follow the mouths that gloat. The wish for their ruin stands openly in the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that mockery is only speech and leaves no consequence is undone: the verse gives the taunt a desolate aftermath.
THE ROOT
יֵשֹׁמּוּ
yeshommu
GROWS FROM
שׁמם
שׁמם (sh-m-m) means to become desolate, devastated, or appalled.
The root holds ruin and stunned shock together: to become desolate can also be to be appalled. That gives the verse’s wish a sharp reversal, the mouths that cry “Aha” are pictured left stunned themselves.
ALSO GROWS
shemamah: Desolation or devastation.
שְׁמָמָה
This noun carries the same שׁמם (sh-m-m) root and names the condition the verse wishes upon the taunting mouths.
shamem: Desolate or appalled.
שָׁמֵם
This form from the same root shows that desolation can carry the shock of being struck speechless.
עֵקֶב
ʿaqev
GROWS FROM
עקב
עקב (ʿ-q-b) means heel; it also carries the sense of what follows behind as a consequence.
The word rendered “reward” can mean “heel” or “consequence.” The verse pictures the taunt’s aftermath as something that follows at its heel.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaqev: Heel.
עָקֵב
The literal heel is the part that trails behind, giving the verse’s idea of consequence a concrete image.
ʿaqav: To follow at the heel or supplant.
עָקַב
This verb shares the עקב (ʿ-q-b) root and connects what follows behind with the consequence that trails the gloat.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats gloating over another’s collapse as consequential speech that can return upon the gloaters.
Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.THE THREAD
As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:The root שׁמם (sh-m-m, “be desolate or appalled”) appears in Isaiah’s word “astonied.” Here that root names the desolation sought for the gloaters; Isaiah uses it for those left appalled, holding devastation and shock together.
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