What Does Psalm 59:5 Mean in the King James?
Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. 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
God’s “visit” is a full attending that brings treachery into reckoning.
THE MEANING
The verse gives voice to a demand that God attend to violence now: nations and betrayers stand within that attention. It asks that destructive acts not be excused or shielded from judgment by favor. “Selah” leaves that demand held before God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that mercy requires treating betrayal as harmless or leaving the violent beyond accountability.
THE ROOT
לִפְקֹד
lifqod
GROWS FROM
פקד
paqad
To attend to, muster, appoint, or reckon with.
The Hebrew verb for “visit” carries the sense of focused attendance and oversight, not merely stopping by. God’s attention takes the matter in hand: the afflicted are seen, and treachery is brought into reckoning.
ALSO GROWS
paqīd: Overseer or official.
פָּקִיד
An overseer is charged with attending to what is under their care; this branch gives “visit” the weight of active responsibility.
pequddah: Oversight, charge, appointment, or visitation.
פְּקֻדָּה
This branch shows the same root naming both an entrusted charge and the time when that charge is answered for.
תָּחֹן
taḥon
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥanan
To show favor or extend favor.
“be merciful” in this verse is taḥon. The request is specifically that favor not be extended to the wicked betrayers. The root makes the tension plain: favor does not have to mean that destructive betrayal goes unaddressed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥen: Favor.
חֵן
This noun makes visible the core sense carried by “be merciful”: the granting of favor.
ḥannun: Favoring or gracious.
חַנּוּן
This description of one who shows favor clarifies what the speaker is asking God to withhold from the treacherous.
בֹּגְדֵי
bogdei
GROWS FROM
בגד
bagad
To betray or deal treacherously.
The Hebrew word carries the sense of betrayal and faithlessness alongside the KJV’s “transgressors.” The verse is naming people who act destructively through broken trust, not simply people who fall short.
ALSO GROWS
boged: A betrayer; one who deals treacherously.
בּוֹגֵד
This singular form makes the personal agent of betrayal explicit.
begidah: Treachery or betrayal.
בְּגִידָה
This noun names the destructive pattern itself, showing what the verse asks God to attend to.
THE PATTERN
God’s attention brings destructive action into judgment, even when favor and mercy are also present.
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.THE THREAD
Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt:“Visited” here comes from the same Hebrew root פקד (paqad), meaning to attend to or reckon with. The root holds both movements together: God’s attention sees what is done to the afflicted, and it brings the betrayer’s actions into view as well.
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