What Does Psalm 79:12 Mean in the King James?
And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.
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 prayer asks for reproach to return to the very bosom that sent it, multiplied sevenfold.
THE MEANING
This prayer gives the reader words for a moment when contempt is aimed at the LORD: it asks for that reproach to return to its speakers sevenfold. The image places the reproach in their own bosom, close enough that its source cannot be hidden.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that contempt aimed at God is weightless and vanishes without consequence: the prayer pictures it returning to its source.
THE ROOT
הָשֵׁב
hashēv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
Turn, return, or turn back.
Beneath “render” is a return: הָשֵׁב (hashēv, cause to return) comes from שׁוּב (shuv, turn or return), so the verse pictures reproach coming back to those who sent it. The related מְשׁוּבָה (meshubah, backsliding) shows that this root can name a turn away; here the causative form asks for what went out to turn back toward its source.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn or return.
שׁוּב
The root itself names movement back toward a point of origin, clarifying the return at the heart of the prayer.
hēshîv: Bring back or restore.
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form describes making something return; הָשֵׁב in the verse carries that same force.
meshubah: Turning away, backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch shows that the root also names a turn away; context gives the direction while the shared root keeps the movement visible.
THE PATTERN
What is sent or set in motion can return to the one who sent it.
His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.The Hebrew behind “render” is הָשֵׁב (hashēv, cause to return), from שׁוּב (shuv, turn or return); Proverbs uses תָּשׁוּב (tāshuv, it will return) from that same root. Both verses picture what is sent out coming back to its source, making the psalm’s request a focused form of the return Proverbs describes.
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