What Does Psalm 73:20 Mean in the King James?
As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
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 LORD’s awakening is a rousing: the image that seemed solid in the dream becomes an object of contempt.
THE MEANING
What seems to dominate now can still be as insubstantial as a dream at waking. When the LORD is roused, that image is despised; the verse keeps the force of that judgment sharp. Its present power carries no promise of permanence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a dominant, frightening image must be lasting reality: when the LORD rouses, that image is despised.
THE ROOT
בָּעִיר
bāʿîr
GROWS FROM
ע־ו־ר
ʿ-w-r
To wake, stir, or rouse.
“awakest; rouses” in this verse is bāʿîr. This form carries the sense of stirring or rousing, so the LORD’s awakening is pictured as active response. The verse’s image does not merely fade from view; it meets the sharp judgment of contempt.
ALSO GROWS
ʿūrāh: Awake; rouse yourself (Psalm 7:6).
עוּרָה
The same root joins awakening with judgment, illuminating the force of the LORD’s rousing here.
ʿūrî: Awake! (Isaiah 51:9).
עוּרִי
This call to awake also carries the force of stirring into action.
צַלְמָם
ṣalmām
GROWS FROM
צ־ל־ם
ṣ-l-m
Image, likeness, or formed representation.
The word names a formed likeness or representation: Scripture uses it for humanity made in God’s image and for carved images. Here, “their image” is the visible form that can vanish like a dream and still be held in contempt.
ALSO GROWS
tselem: Image or likeness (Genesis 1:26).
צֶלֶם
The same word can name a likeness that reflects what is made in God’s image.
tsalmê: Images; rendered “molten images” (Numbers 33:52).
צַלְמֵי
The word also names formed objects of devotion, showing how an image can claim significance without being the reality it represents.
THE PATTERN
Waking separates what only looks substantial from what can truly satisfy and endure.
It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.THE THREAD
Arise, O LORD, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.“Awake” here and the LORD’s “awakest” in Psalm 73:20 share the Hebrew root ע־ו־ר (ʿ-w-r), meaning to wake or rouse. Psalm 7:6 makes the force of that rousing explicit: it is bound to judgment, the moment when the enemy’s image is seen for what it is.
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