What Does Psalm 82:7 Mean in the King James?

But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

Psalm 82:7 · 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

Even those called “gods” meet death as ⁨אָדָם⁩, the shared, ground-linked human condition.

THE MEANING

Your status may set you among rulers, but it does not remove you from the human condition: you die as a human and fall as princes fall. The verse places an elevated title beside the same mortal ending, showing that rank cannot overrule what you are.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie that high status can place you beyond ordinary human mortality.

THE ROOT

כְּאָדָם

ke'adam

GROWS FROM

אדם

adam

The human, linked in Hebrew word and sound to the ground, ⁨אֲדָמָה⁩.

The Hebrew phrase is singular: “like ⁨אָדָם⁩,” where English gives the plural “men.” Its shared consonants with ⁨אֲדָמָה⁩ (ground) connect even exalted figures to the common, ground-formed human condition.

ALSO GROWS

adamah: Ground, soil

אֲדָמָה

This branch links the human word to the ground, making the verse’s comparison carry an earthbound human nature.

adom: Red

אָדֹם

The shared consonants preserve the traditional red-soil association in the same word family.

תִּפֹּלוּ

tipolu

GROWS FROM

נפל

naphal

To fall, drop, or collapse.

The verse uses this root for the fate of princes: their elevation does not keep them from descent. Its word family gives “fall” the force of actual collapse, not merely a change in status.

ALSO GROWS

nefilah: A fall, falling

נְפִלָה

This noun makes the descent named in the verse a concrete event.

mappalah: Downfall, defeat

מַפָּלָה

This branch carries the root’s movement from a standing position into collapse.

תְּמוּתוּ

temutu

GROWS FROM

מות

mut

To die.

“die” in this verse is temutu. The root’s word family includes both dying and death as a named condition. Beside ⁨אָדָם⁩, it makes mortality part of the shared human condition rather than an exception that rank can escape.

ALSO GROWS

mavet: Death

מָוֶת

The noun names the endpoint that the verse states as an unavoidable human fate.

met: Dead, a dead person

מֵת

This branch names the state reached by the verb “die.”

THE PATTERN

No human rank removes its bearer from the shared limit of mortality.

All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.

Job 34:15 · KJVJob places every human life within the same return to dust.

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

Ecclesiastes 3:19 · KJVThe verse says plainly that human distinction does not cancel the common fate of death.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Hebrews 9:27 · KJVThe statement extends mortality across human life, without granting an exception for status.

THE THREAD

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7 · KJV

Genesis places ⁨אָדָם⁩ (human) beside ⁨אֲדָמָה⁩ (ground), making their shared consonants visible in the forming of the human being. Psalm 82:7 echoes ⁨אָדָם⁩ in “like men,” bringing even those called gods back to the common human nature.

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