What Does Psalm 78:64 Mean in the King James?

Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.

Psalm 78:64 · 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 verse measures catastrophe by two absences: the priests fall, and even the widows’ tears are gone.

THE MEANING

When the people who carry spiritual care fall, the loss reaches the households they leave behind. The verse places the priests’ deaths beside widows who do not weep, showing devastation without the usual outward expression of grief. It gives no reason for their silence.

THE ROOT

תִבְכֶּינָה

tivkenah

GROWS FROM

בכה

To weep, to shed tears.

“made no lamentation” in this verse is tivkenah. The Hebrew verb is “they weep,” so the line places attention on the absence of tears themselves. Its family includes ⁨בְּכִי⁩ (bekhi, weeping) and ⁨בֹּכִים⁩ (bochim, weepers); here, that shared expression of grief is absent.

ALSO GROWS

bekhi: Weeping, crying.

בְּכִי

This noun gives a name to the act absent from the line: no tears are shown.

bochim: Weepers; those who weep.

בֹּכִים

This plural form, also used as a place name in Judges 2:5, makes weeping communal; here, the widows have no such shared lament.

THE PATTERN

Scripture registers communal loss through bodily signs: silence, tears, and grief that refuses comfort.

So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

Job 2:13 · KJVHere grief is so great that the people around Job sit in silence.

Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.

Jeremiah 31:15 · KJVHere the loss of children becomes bitter weeping that refuses comfort.

And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him,

Acts 20:37 · KJVHere a community’s grief over separation breaks into tears and physical farewell.

THE THREAD

And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not; for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it.

1 Samuel 4:20 · KJV

Here a widow does not answer the women around her; the verse holds that silence beside the birth of her child and her approaching death. Read beside Psalm 78, it gives the silence among priestly households a human face.

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