What Does Psalm 7:4 Mean in the King James?
If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)
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 verse makes integrity active: it reaches beyond refusing harm to a friend and extends rescue even to an adversary.
THE MEANING
The verse presents your integrity as refusing evil in return to someone at peace with you, while extending rescue even to an adversary. It places repayment and deliverance in one line: hostility does not by itself settle what comes back from you. The action is good freely given toward someone who opposes you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being opposed gives me cause to return harm. The verse places rescue beside the adversary’s name.
THE ROOT
גָּמַלְתִּי
gamalti
GROWS FROM
גמל
gamal
To deal with, requite, or repay.
The root makes “rewarded” relational: it names what one gives back in response to another. The same seed can describe the act of requiting and the recompense that follows, so the verse turns on what returns between people.
ALSO GROWS
gamal: To deal with, requite, or repay.
גָּמַל
This verb is the root behind “rewarded,” framing the speaker’s claim around what is returned.
gemul: Recompense; the return or result of an action.
גְּמוּל
This noun carries the same seed into the outcome received, connecting the verse’s action to its consequence.
שׁוֹלְמִי
sholmi
GROWS FROM
שלם
shalem
To be whole or complete; to make whole.
The Hebrew word behind “at peace with me” belongs to the root that names wholeness and being made whole. The verse places this intact bond beside hostility, while refusing to make either relationship a reason to return injury.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Peace, wholeness, or well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
The peaceful relationship in the verse carries the root’s sense of wholeness between people.
shalem: Whole, complete, or intact.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the bond described as peaceful feel like an intact relationship, not merely the absence of conflict.
וָאֲחַלְּצָה
vaʾachaletsah
GROWS FROM
חלץ
chalats
To draw out or pull away; by extension, to rescue.
“delivered” in this verse is vaʾachaletsah. This root joins rescue with drawing someone out of peril or removing what holds them. In the verse, that act reaches an adversary, so deliverance is not confined to those already at peace with you.
ALSO GROWS
chalats: To draw out, rescue, or deliver.
חָלַץ
This verbal branch names the act rendered “delivered” and gives it the sense of pulling someone out of danger.
chalitsah: Removal or taking off.
חֲלִיצָה
This noun preserves the root’s sense of drawing something away, illuminating rescue as removal from what confines.
THE PATTERN
Integrity interrupts retaliation: evil is not returned as evil, and even an opponent can receive good.
And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.THE THREAD
They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.“Rewarded” comes from the same root, גמל, in both verses. Psalm 35 names evil returned for good; Psalm 7’s claim turns the same root toward restraint and rescue, even where hostility is present.
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