What Does Psalm 79:6 Mean in the King James?
Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
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 pairs knowing God with calling on God’s name: because the name carries God’s nature, the call is an appeal to who God is.
THE MEANING
This prayer asks God to pour out wrath on peoples and kingdoms that do not know God and do not call on God’s name. Calling on the name is an appeal to God’s nature, so the absence is relational and public: there is no recognition and no invocation. The request for wrath stands plainly in the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a kingdom’s power can make its refusal of God consequence-free.
THE ROOT
קָרְאוּ
qārəʾû
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
Call out, proclaim, or read aloud.
“called upon” in this verse is qārəʾû. The verse says the kingdoms have not called in God’s name: בְּשִׁמְךָ (beshimkha, “in your name”), with שֵׁם (shem, “name as nature”). The root also gives words for public reading and assembly, so the missing act is not merely a spoken formula; it is the absence of an appeal to God’s nature.
ALSO GROWS
miqrāʾ: Convocation; reading aloud.
מִקְרָא
A gathering called together or a text read aloud shows how qara can make a call public.
qəriʾāh: Calling; reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
This branch holds calling and voiced reading together, illuminating the verse’s absence of an expressed appeal.
יְדָעוּךָ
yəḏāʿûḵā
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
Know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
“Have not known thee” describes more than lacking information: yada carries knowing through recognition and encounter. Paired with the absence of calling, it presents a relationship that never becomes an address to God.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge; understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows that knowing includes recognition and understanding, not just possession of facts.
hôdîaʿ: To make known; to inform.
הוֹדִיעַ
This causative form shows the root can move knowledge into what is disclosed or made recognizable.
THE PATTERN
Knowing God’s nature becomes visible in trust and in calling on God’s name.
And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.THE THREAD
And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.Psalm 9:10 uses the same root, ידע (yadaʿ, “know, perceive”), in “know thy name,” turning the absence here into a revealing contrast: knowing God’s nature opens into trust. The shared root makes “know thee” more than information; it is recognition that shapes reliance.
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