What Does Psalm 50:20 Mean in the King James?
Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son.
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
Slander is pictured as a gift: you “give a blemish” to the person the verse names as your own kin.
THE MEANING
When you speak against your brother, your words do more than express an opinion: they assign a blemish to someone bound to you as family. Calling him “thy mother’s son” brings the accusation into the closest kinship, where contempt is directed at someone named as your own.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that contemptuous speech is weightless because it is only speech; the verse pictures it as giving a mark of defect to your own kin.
THE ROOT
תִּתֶּן דֹּפִי
titten dofi
GROWS FROM
נ־ת־ן
to give, set, or place
The Hebrew phrase behind “slanderest” says that you “give a blemish.” The verb makes accusation an act of placing something on another person, and the verse names that person as your own kin.
ALSO GROWS
natan: to give, set, or place
נָתַן
This verb names the action in the phrase: the blemish is something given to the brother.
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
This noun comes from the same root for giving; here, what is given is a blemish rather than a benefit.
THE PATTERN
Speech functions as an action that can place harm on another person, especially when the target is kin.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.THE THREAD
Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.Both verses place speech against a brother inside a kinship bond. James joins speaking evil to judging; Psalm 50 sharpens the act as giving that brother a blemish, making the judgment something imposed through speech.
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