What Does Psalm 71:10 Mean in the King James?

For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,

Psalm 71:10 · KJV

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 danger is not only hostile speech: those watching your living soul have turned watchfulness into shared counsel against it.

THE MEANING

This verse names the moment hostile words gather into a plan aimed at your living soul. The threat is deliberate: your enemies speak against you, and they consult together.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that being watched necessarily means being kept safe falls away: watchfulness can serve a hostile purpose when it is joined to a plan against you.

THE ROOT

שֹׁמְרֵי

shomrei

GROWS FROM

שָׁמַר

shamar

to guard, keep, or watch

“lay wait” in this verse is shomrei. The people described as laying wait are called ⁨שֹׁמְרֵי⁩ (shomrei), watchers or keepers, from ⁨שָׁמַר⁩ (shamar), to guard or watch. The next words reveal watchfulness turned toward harm: their attention joins a plan against the living soul.

ALSO GROWS

shomer: watcher, keeper

שֹׁמֵר

This is the singular form behind the watchers in the verse, showing that the threat involves sustained attention.

mishmeret: guard duty, charge, watch

מִשְׁמֶרֶת

The same root can describe a watch kept over someone or something; here the surrounding words show that the watch serves a hostile design.

נוֹעֲצוּ

noʿatsu

GROWS FROM

יָעַץ

yaʿats

to advise, deliberate, give counsel

The verb ⁨נוֹעֲצוּ⁩ (noʿatsu), translated “take counsel together,” comes from ⁨יָעַץ⁩ (yaʿats), to advise or deliberate. Its word family includes counsel and counselor, so the threat is not only speech in anger; it is shared deliberation aimed at a living soul.

ALSO GROWS

ʿetsah: counsel, advice

עֵצָה

This noun carries the same idea of counsel that the group puts into action together.

yoʿets: counselor, adviser

יוֹעֵץ

A counselor gives advice; here several people take part in that deliberation against the speaker.

THE PATTERN

Hostile speech becomes a coordinated threat when people watch and plan together against a living person.

For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

Psalm 31:13 · KJVSlander and shared counsel gather into a plan against the speaker’s life, echoing the threat named here.

But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

Jeremiah 11:19 · KJVThe verse exposes a concealed group plan whose aim is to cut a living person off from life.

And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.

Matthew 26:4 · KJVShared counsel becomes a deliberate plan to kill, carrying the same structure of threat into the Gospel.

THE THREAD

For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

Psalm 31:13 · KJV

The verb rendered “take counsel together” here and “took counsel together” in Psalm 31:13 comes from ⁨יָעַץ⁩ (yaʿats), to counsel or deliberate. The shared root shows the threat tightening from hostile words into joint planning against a living person.

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