What Does Psalm 69:22 Mean in the King James?
Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
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 table is tied to the language of sending out provision, so here what is spread before them becomes the very snare that catches them.
THE MEANING
This verse lays a severe image before you: the table set for them becomes a snare, and what was meant for their well-being becomes a trap. Provision and danger occupy the same place; the text does not soften that reversal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what appears as provision must therefore be harmless or lead to well-being.
THE ROOT
שולחנם
shulḥānam
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send, send forth, release; the action of extending something outward.
The table’s name is linked to שלח (shalach, send forth or release): provision is something extended and laid out before someone. Here, that outward extension becomes a snare, so what reaches them also becomes what catches them.
ALSO GROWS
shālaḥ: Send, send forth, release.
שָׁלַח
The verb names the act of extending or sending out; it illuminates the table as provision set before them.
shulḥān: Table; provision laid out.
שֻׁלְחָן
This is the word used for their table, the place where what is sent out to sustain them turns into a trap.
לִשְׁלוֹמִים
lishlōmîm
GROWS FROM
שלם
Be whole or complete; bring to wholeness.
The phrase rendered “for their welfare” comes from the root of שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness and well-being). The verse’s turn is sharp: what should have brought wholeness becomes a trap.
ALSO GROWS
shālōm: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the root’s familiar sense behind “welfare,” making the promised good in the verse concrete.
shālēm: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch shows the root’s sense of completeness, which stands in stark contrast to the trap the verse describes.
THE PATTERN
What is set before a person can become the very snare that catches them.
And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.THE THREAD
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.Both verses use the same word for “table,” yet here it becomes a snare while in Psalm 23 it is prepared as care. The shared word holds the reversal: what is set before a person can be provision or entrapment.
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