What Does Psalm 59:3 Mean in the King James?
For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD.
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
Being hunted does not prove you have done something to deserve it.
THE MEANING
A living soul can face powerful people gathered against them. The verse names rebellion and missing as possible causes, then denies that either explains this attack. The danger is real, but it does not certify the person under threat as guilty.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If powerful people are against me, their opposition proves I must have rebelled or missed the mark.
THE ROOT
אָרְבוּ
ʾārəvū
GROWS FROM
ארב
To lie in wait; to ambush.
“lie in wait” in this verse is ʾārəvū. The verb pictures danger taking position against the speaker. That hidden setup describes what is being done to the person, not what the person has done.
ALSO GROWS
ʾōrēv: One who lies in wait; an ambusher.
אֹרֵב
The attacker is already positioned against the person before any cause is named.
maʾārāv: An ambush; a place of lurking.
מַאֲרָב
The root can name both the act of lying in wait and the concealed danger prepared for its target.
פִּשְׁעִי
pishʿî
GROWS FROM
פשע
To rebel; to break away.
“transgression” in this verse is pishʿî. The speaker names rebellion as one possible accusation and denies it as the cause of the attack. The verse refuses to let hostility itself stand as proof of rebellion.
ALSO GROWS
pāshaʿ: To rebel; to break away.
פָּשַׁע
This verb reveals the rupture carried in the word translated “transgression.”
pōshēaʿ: One who rebels.
פֹּשֵׁעַ
The root names both the act of breaking away and the person accused of doing it.
חַטָּאתִי
ḥaṭṭāʾtî
GROWS FROM
חטא
To miss; an act of missing or fault.
“sin” in this verse is ḥaṭṭāʾtî. This denial sits beside the denial of rebellion: the verse rejects both breaking away and missing as the reason for the attack. The two roots preserve a fuller range of possible accusation than a single English word would.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss; to commit a fault.
חָטָא
The verb gives the concrete sense behind the speaker’s denial of “sin.”
ḥēṭʾ: A fault; a missing.
חֵטְא
This noun shows the same root naming the act or condition of missing.
THE PATTERN
Hostility against a person does not, by itself, prove that person is guilty.
And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.THE THREAD
For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.Both passages use נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, living soul) for the person under threat. Psalm 35:7 makes the point explicit twice: the net is hidden and the pit dug without cause.
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