What Does Psalm 7:13 Mean in the King James?
He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.
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 word translated “persecutors” also means “burning ones”: pursuit carries the heat of fire, and the arrows of death are aimed at those who carry it.
THE MEANING
The reader encounters a prepared threat of death aimed against those who pursue. The verse holds the violence plainly and places the pursuer under answering judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that violent pursuit can continue without consequence meets a direct contradiction: the persecutors face prepared instruments of death.
THE ROOT
דֹּלְקִים
dōləqîm
GROWS FROM
דלק
d-l-q
To burn or kindle; also to pursue hotly or persecute.
The Hebrew form behind “persecutors” belongs to a root that holds burning and pursuit together. Proverbs 26:23 uses the same form for “burning” lips, so the pursuit here carries the heat and consuming force of fire.
ALSO GROWS
dālaq: Burn, kindle
דָּלַק
This basic sense supplies the heat carried by the word translated “persecutors.”
yidlōq: Pursue, persecute (Psalm 10:2)
יִדְלֹק
The same root names pursuit directly, showing that burning and persecution share a linguistic seed.
dōləqîm: Burning (Proverbs 26:23, of lips)
דֹּלְקִים
This same form describes burning lips, making the root’s heat visible beyond its sense of pursuit.
THE PATTERN
Violent pursuit is brought under judgment that answers the pursuer’s deeds.
According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.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
The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.Psalm 10:2 uses the same דלק root in the verb the KJV renders “doth persecute.” The shared root joins pursuit with burning, sharpening Psalm 7’s image of the pursuer facing a prepared answer.
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