What Does Psalm 59:13 Mean in the King James?
Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.
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 seeks the enemies’ disappearance while naming God’s rule inside Jacob, the heel-grasper, and at the earth’s farthest edge.
THE MEANING
The prayer names its demand plainly: the enemies are to be consumed until they are no more. It joins that violence to recognition that God’s active rule in Jacob reaches the earth’s farthest edge.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s rule is confined to Jacob or one territory; the verse states that its reach extends to the ends of the earth.
THE ROOT
כַלֵּם
kallem
GROWS FROM
כלה
k-l-h
To finish, bring to an end, or be completed.
The repeated command asks for the enemies’ ending, made explicit by “that they may not be.” Here “consume” carries the root’s force of bringing something to its end.
ALSO GROWS
kalah: Come to an end; be complete.
כָּלָה
This completion sense of the same root echoes the verse’s stated finality for the enemies.
vayekhal: He finished; brought to completion.
וַיְכַל
In Genesis 2:2 the root describes work brought to completion; here the command directs that ending toward the enemies.
מֹשֵׁל
moshel
GROWS FROM
משל
m-sh-l
To rule, govern, or exercise dominion.
“ruleth” in this verse is moshel. The form names active rule: God is governing, not merely holding a title. Its reach runs from Jacob to the earth’s farthest edge.
ALSO GROWS
memshalah: Dominion; governance.
מֶמְשָׁלָה
This noun names the sphere or exercise of rule that the verse extends to earth’s ends.
mashal: To rule or govern.
מָשַׁל
This verb makes the line’s rule an ongoing action rather than an abstract claim.
יַעֲקֹב
Yaʿaqov
GROWS FROM
עקב
ʿ-q-b
Heel; following at the heel, with the related sense of supplanting.
Jacob’s name carries the image of the heel and of reaching for the place ahead. The verse names God’s rule in Jacob, then extends that rule to the earth’s farthest edge.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaqev: Heel.
עָקֵב
The heel image is part of the name’s meaning and gives “in Jacob” a human texture.
ʿaqav: To follow at the heel; to supplant or overreach.
עָקַב
This branch adds the sense of striving for the place ahead to the name under which God’s rule is declared.
THE PATTERN
Scripture joins judgment against violent power with the recognition of God’s rule.
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.THE THREAD
For the kingdom is the LORD’s: and he is the governor among the nations.“Governor” is מֹשֵׁל (moshel, ruler), from the same root משל (m-sh-l, rule or govern) as “ruleth” in Psalm 59:13. The shared root carries God’s active rule from Jacob to the nations.
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