What Does Psalm 81:12 Mean in the King James?
So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
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’s sharp turn is that release can mean freedom from a captor, or being left inside the heart’s own captivity.
THE MEANING
You can be released into your own way of thinking: the heart’s fixed insistence becomes the counsel that directs each step. The walking continues, but its path is shaped by that insistence. Release can leave a person moving freely while their way grows narrower.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that being left to do what you want must mean being affirmed as free. Unrestrained choice can also be abandonment to the heart’s own constriction.
THE ROOT
וָאֲשַׁלְּחֵהוּ
va’ashallechehu
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
Send forth, release, let go.
“gave them up” in this verse is va’ashallechehu. Here, shalach names a release into the path the people have chosen. Its branches keep the image of sending alive, so release can carry either deliverance or abandonment.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: Messenger; one sent.
שָׁלִיחַ
A messenger is someone sent onward; the root moves from sending people away to sending someone on a mission.
Shiloach: Siloam; “sent.”
שִׁלֹחַ
The name preserves the sense of sending; in John 9:7, the pool of Siloam becomes the place where sight is restored.
שְׁרִירוּת
sherirut
GROWS FROM
שרר
sh-r-r
Firmness, hardening, stubbornness.
“hearts’ lust” in this verse is sherirut. The Hebrew word carries the force of a will held firm: the heart is set on its own direction. The next clause shows how that settled insistence supplies the counsel by which the people walk.
ALSO GROWS
sherirut: Stubbornness, obstinacy.
שְׁרִירוּת
This is the word describing the heart’s fixed insistence, which the verse links to the path the people follow.
sharir: Firm, strong.
שָׁרִיר
The sense of firmness illuminates how an insistence can become settled enough to shape a person’s course.
מוֹעֲצוֹתֵיהֶם
mo’atsoteihem
GROWS FROM
יעץ
y-ʿ-ṣ
Advise, counsel, deliberate.
“counsels” in this verse is mo’atsoteihem. The people are not merely wandering; they walk by counsel. The root connects the inward act of advising with the outward course that follows it.
ALSO GROWS
etsah: Counsel, advice, plan.
עֵצָה
This names the guidance that becomes their chosen way of moving.
yo’ets: Counselor, adviser.
יוֹעֵץ
A counselor gives direction; here, the people’s own counsel takes that directing role.
THE PATTERN
Release to a chosen desire leaves a person walking inside the consequences of that desire.
And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.The command “Let my people go” uses שַׁלַּח (shalach: send, release), the same root carried by “gave them up.” In Exodus, release opens a way out of bondage; here, release leaves the people to the direction of their own counsel.
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