What Does Psalm 59:12 Mean in the King James?
For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.
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 words that miss their mark become the net that catches the pride behind them.
THE MEANING
When cursing and deception leave your mouth, they can become the net in which you are caught. The verse makes speech consequential: the words do not vanish after they are spoken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that speech can wound or deceive without also binding its speaker.
THE ROOT
וְיִלָּכְדוּ
veyillāḵəḏū
GROWS FROM
לכד
l-k-d
to catch, seize, capture
“taken” in this verse is veyillāḵəḏū. The verb pictures capture, with the speakers themselves becoming the ones seized. Beside the words of their mouths, it shows speech as part of the circumstance in which they are caught.
ALSO GROWS
lāḵaḏ: to capture, seize
לָכַד
This active form names the root action behind being taken.
nilkaḏ: to be caught
נִלְכַּד
This passive form places the speaker on the receiving end of the capture, as in the verse.
חַטַּאת
ḥaṭṭāʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
to miss, go astray
The word for sin comes from a root of missing or going astray. Calling the mouth’s offense a “missing” links harmful speech to words that have missed their mark.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: to miss, go astray
חָטָא
The verb makes the underlying image concrete: speech can miss its mark.
ḥōṭēʾ: one who misses; a sinner
חֹטֵא
This form names the person by the act of missing, joining the speaker to the speech named in the verse.
שְׂפָתֵימוֹ
səfāṯēmō
GROWS FROM
שפה
ś-p-h
lip; language; edge or bank
“lips” in this verse is səfāṯēmō. שָׂפָה can name a lip, a language, or an edge. The verse locates cursing and lying at the boundary where words pass outward, and those words become part of the speaker’s own exposure.
ALSO GROWS
śāp̄āh: lip
שָׂפָה
This is the bodily edge where the words in the verse are spoken.
śāp̄āh: language, speech
שָׂפָה
The same word names both the lips and a language, linking the speaker’s words to the wider world of speech.
śəp̄aṯ hayyām: the edge or shore of the sea
שְׂפַת הַיָּם
The phrase uses the same word for an edge, extending the image of lips as the boundary where what is within crosses outward.
THE PATTERN
Words spoken in deceit or pride can become the means by which their speaker is exposed or caught.
A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips: but the just shall come out of trouble.For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.THE THREAD
The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips: but the just shall come out of trouble.Both verses use שָׂפָה (śāp̄āh, “lip”) for the lips that speak. Proverbs makes the consequence explicit: the speaker’s own lips become a snare, opening the image of Psalm 59:12 where speech and capture meet.
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