What Does Psalm 50:21 Mean in the King James?
These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.
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 silence you read as God being like you is the pause before your deeds are arranged in plain sight.
THE MEANING
When you do what this verse names, God’s silence does not mean agreement or that God shares your measure. The deeds remain, and the speaker brings them into an ordered view where you can see them clearly. A delay in response does not erase what has been done.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that silence means approval, or that God sees your actions by the same measure you do.
THE ROOT
דִּמִּיתָ
dimita
GROWS FROM
דמה
damah
To be like, compare, or imagine.
“thoughtest” in this verse is dimita. The word for thinking here carries the sense of making a likeness: you imagine God to be as you are. The verse exposes that resemblance as your projection, not God’s nature.
ALSO GROWS
damah: To resemble or compare.
דָּמָה
It shares the root’s sense of measuring one thing against another, the act behind imagining God as like oneself.
dimyon: Likeness, image, or imagination.
דִּמְיוֹן
It shows how an inward picture of God can be shaped by the one imagining.
וְהֶחֱרַשְׁתִּי
vehecherashti
GROWS FROM
חרשׁ
charash
To be silent; the same root also carries the sense of being deaf.
“kept silence” in this verse is vehecherashti. This root can name both not speaking and not hearing. God’s silence in the verse is a lack of response, but the speaker makes clear that it is not the same as consent or blindness to what has been done.
ALSO GROWS
hecherish: To keep silent.
הֶחֱרִישׁ
It is the verbal form behind the speaker’s silence.
cheresh: Deaf; one who does not hear.
חֵרֵשׁ
The related sense makes the silence vivid while sharpening the distinction: silence does not mean the deeds go unheard or unseen.
וְאֶעֶרְכָה
ve'erakhah
GROWS FROM
ערך
ʿarakh
To arrange, set in order, or array.
“set in order” in this verse is ve'erakhah. The response is not a vague accusation: the deeds are arranged before the eyes. The root’s language of ordering makes the reproof an unveiling in which what was done becomes visible in its particulars.
ALSO GROWS
ma'arakhah: An array or formation.
מַעֲרָכָה
It carries the root’s sense of things placed in an ordered formation, as the deeds are set before the eyes.
ma'arekhet: An arrangement or system.
מַעֲרֶכֶת
It echoes the movement from scattered acts to a view in which their order can be seen.
THE PATTERN
Silence or delay can be mistaken for indifference, while what has been done remains visible and answerable.
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.THE THREAD
For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.Psalm 50:21 says, “These things hast thou done”; the Hebrew word for “done” comes from עשה (asah), the same root behind “work” here. The shared root joins the act to its eventual appearance before judgment: silence does not make the work disappear.
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