What Does Psalm 82:5 Mean in the King James?
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
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
When those who should perceive reality lose sight, the very ground everyone stands on begins to totter.
THE MEANING
When you cannot perceive what is true, you move through darkness without a sure path. When discernment fails among those who hold things together, the foundations of shared life begin to shift.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a community can stay grounded while its stewards refuse to see is undone: their blindness shakes the ground beneath everyone.
THE ROOT
מוֹסְדֵי
mosde
GROWS FROM
יסד
To establish, set a foundation.
The Hebrew word for “foundations” carries the act of establishing within it: these are the bases on which shared life is set. The verse says they totter when knowing and discernment fail.
ALSO GROWS
yasad: To establish or lay a foundation.
יָסַד
The verse’s unstable foundations are the very things that have been set in place to hold life steady.
yesod: Foundation, basis.
יְסוֹד
This related form shows that what is shaken is the underlying basis, not just a surface detail.
יָדְעוּ
yada'u
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know, perceive, or recognize through encounter.
“know” in this verse is yada'u. The verse pairs failed knowing with failed discernment, then shows the consequence in how they walk. Knowing here reaches beyond holding information: it is perception that can guide a path.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or perceive.
יָדַע
The same verb names the perception that is absent when the people walk in darkness.
da'at: Knowledge or perception.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root makes the link between knowing and the capacity to see clearly.
יִמּוֹטוּ
yimmotu
GROWS FROM
מוט
To totter, slip, or be shaken.
“out of course” in this verse is yimmotu. The Hebrew pictures the earth’s foundations as losing their footing. What looks like a failure of perception becomes a shaking of the ground that holds the world together.
ALSO GROWS
emmot: I shall be moved or shaken.
אֶמּוֹט
This form from the same root makes the instability personal: what is shaken can be the ground beneath someone’s feet.
mot: A tottering or slipping.
מוֹט
The root holds together the image of losing balance and the verse’s claim that the foundations themselves are out of course.
THE PATTERN
When perception is lost to darkness, the ground of shared life cannot remain secure.
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.THE THREAD
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.“Knoweth” uses the same root, yada, as “They know not.” The root connection links perception to a path: Psalm 82 describes foundations shaken when knowing fails, while Psalm 1 says the LORD knows the way of the righteous.
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