What Does Psalm 5:10 Mean in the King James?
Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.
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 prayer asks God to make the rebels’ own counsel the instrument of their fall.
THE MEANING
This is a stark plea to God: destroy the rebels, let their own plans bring them down, and cast them out amid their many rebellions. The prayer names their rebellion against God as the cause of the judgment it seeks.
THE ROOT
הַאֲשִׁימֵם
ha'ashimem
GROWS FROM
אשם
ʾ-sh-m
To incur guilt or be liable for guilt; in this verb form, to hold guilty.
Behind the KJV’s forceful “Destroy,” the Hebrew verb carries the language of guilt and liability. The plea frames judgment as a reckoning with culpability.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāshem: Guilty, liable.
אָשֵׁם
This branch makes explicit the liability beneath the plea for judgment.
ʾāshām: Guilt; a guilt or reparation offering.
אָשָׁם
The related term links guilt with an accounting for the wrong committed.
פִּשְׁעֵיהֶם
pishʿeihem
GROWS FROM
פשע
p-sh-ʿ
To rebel, break away.
“Transgressions” in this verse is pishʿeihem. The “multitude” here is a multitude of rebellions, not merely a tally of small errors. The verse closes with another word for rebellion, מָרוּ (maru, “they rebelled”), from the distinct root מרה (m-r-h), echoing the rupture with a different root.
ALSO GROWS
pāshaʿ: To rebel, break away.
פָּשַׁע
This verb names the act behind the many rebellions in the verse.
pōshēaʿ: One who rebels.
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This branch names the person whose rebellion the prayer addresses.
מֹעֲצוֹתֵיהֶם
moʿatsoteihem
GROWS FROM
יעץ
y-ʿ-ts
To advise, counsel, deliberate.
“Counsels” in this verse is moʿatsoteihem. The rebels’ plans are part of the judgment being asked for: the prayer says they fall by their own counsel. Their schemes become the path of their collapse.
ALSO GROWS
ʿētsāh: Counsel, advice, plan.
עֵצָה
This is the noun at the center of the verse’s image of falling by one’s own plans.
yōʿēts: Adviser, counselor.
יוֹעֵץ
This branch names the one who gives counsel, linking deliberation to the people acting on their plans.
THE PATTERN
A person’s own plans and actions can become the means by which their consequences return upon them.
His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.Both verses use עֵצָה (ʿētsāh, counsel), from יעץ (y-ʿ-ts, to advise). Psalm 33:10 shows God bringing hostile counsel to nought; Psalm 5:10 asks that those who form it fall by it.
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