What Does Psalm 78:34 Mean in the King James?
When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.
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 piles seeking, turning back, and dawn-seeking after God kills them, showing crisis urgency without proving lasting trust.
THE MEANING
This verse holds a brutal sequence: God kills them, and they then seek him, turn back, and pursue God urgently. It speaks now wherever danger makes seeking feel immediate. A return can be real in the moment without yet becoming settled trust.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that an urgent return under pressure proves lasting trust; the next verse says their hearts were not steadfast with God.
THE ROOT
יִדְרְשׁוּהוּ
yidreshuhu
GROWS FROM
דָּרַשׁ
To seek, inquire, or resort to.
“sought” in this verse is yidreshuhu. The first seeking verb already carries the sense of inquiry. Then the verse adds another seeking verb with a dawn-like urgency, piling pursuit onto pursuit after death.
ALSO GROWS
midrash: Inquiry or interpretation.
מִדְרָשׁ
This branch preserves the searching and questioning contained in “sought.”
derishah: Inquiry or investigation.
דְּרִישָׁה
It shows that this root’s seeking can involve a sustained search, not only a passing glance.
וְשָׁבוּ
veshavu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
To turn back, return, or bring back.
“returned” in this verse is veshavu. The word marks a change of direction toward God. Yet turning back in a crisis does not, by itself, mean the heart remains turned; the next verse says their hearts were not steadfast.
ALSO GROWS
heshiv: Bring back or restore.
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form shows the same root can describe something being brought back, not only someone turning back.
teshuvah: Return or turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun keeps the directional sense audible: the return is a turn toward, not proof of where the person will remain.
וְשִׁחֲרוּ
veshicharu
GROWS FROM
שָׁחַר
To seek early or diligently; the related noun means dawn.
The final phrase is another form of seeking, now colored by dawn and earnestness. English “enquired early” can obscure that the verse repeats the movement of pursuit in a more urgent register.
ALSO GROWS
shachar: Dawn.
שַׁחַר
The dawn sense gives “early” a concrete time-of-day image.
ashachareka: “I will seek thee early” (Psalm 63:1).
אֲשַׁחֲרֶךָ
This is the same seeking verb, making the dawn-colored pursuit explicit.
THE PATTERN
Distress can turn the moment into an urgent cry toward God.
Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?THE THREAD
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;The verb behind “enquired early” here is the same dawn-seeking verb behind “early will I seek thee” in Psalm 63. That shared root lets the seeking in Psalm 78 be heard with the same urgency of pursuit, while Psalm 63 places it beside thirst in the body.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us