What Does Psalm 83:17 Mean in the King James?

Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:

Psalm 83:17 · 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

The Hebrew root behind “perish” also means to be lost, so the verse asks for more than a setback: it asks for ruin.

THE MEANING

This verse gives language to a desire for adversaries to be confounded, shaken by lasting alarm, publicly shamed, and destroyed. Its repeated “let them” makes this a direct appeal for their ruin, not a prediction that it is already happening.

THE ROOT

וְיֹאבֵדוּ

weyoʾvedu

GROWS FROM

אבד

⁨אבד⁩ (ʾābad) means to perish or be lost.

“perish” in this verse is weyoʾvedu. The root carries being lost alongside perishing, joining ruin with disappearance. Here it gives the verse a severe ending: the speaker asks that the adversaries be lost altogether.

ALSO GROWS

ʾoved: lost; perishing

אָבֵד

This form makes the root’s sense of being lost visible alongside its sense of perishing.

ʾavedah: a lost thing; loss

אֲבֵדָה

The same root names what is lost, extending the verse’s final image beyond death to loss itself.

ʾavaddon: destruction; ruin

אֲבַדּוֹן

This related form echoes the total ruin the verse asks for.

וְיִבָּהֲלוּ

veyibbāhalu

GROWS FROM

בהל

⁨בהל⁩ (bāhal) means to be startled, dismayed, or hurried by alarm.

The word translated “troubled” carries the force of alarm that unsettles someone, even driving them into haste. The verse places this agitation between being confounded and being shamed, making the requested downfall feel immediate and disorienting.

ALSO GROWS

behalah: panic; sudden alarm

בְּהָלָה

This noun shows the intensity of alarm contained in the verse’s “troubled.”

nivhal: alarmed; hurried

נִבְהָל

The same root links dismay with hurried movement, sharpening the sense of agitation.

יִבֹּשׁוּ

yibbōshū

GROWS FROM

בושׁ

⁨בושׁ⁩ (bōsh) means to be ashamed, confounded, or disappointed.

The root can carry shame as well as disappointed expectation, so “confounded” reaches beyond embarrassment to the collapse of assured standing. The verse’s next verb, ⁨בהל⁩, shifts that collapse into alarm.

ALSO GROWS

bûshah: shame

בּוּשָׁה

This noun makes explicit the shame carried by the verse’s first verb.

hitbayesh: to become ashamed

הִתְבַּיֵּשׁ

This reflexive form shares the root and shows shame as something that overtakes a person.

THE PATTERN

A plea for deliverance names the defeat and public reversal of persecutors as an answer to their harm.

Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.

Psalm 35:4 · KJVIt likewise asks for those who seek harm to be turned back and publicly confounded.

But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.

Jeremiah 20:11 · KJVIt names persecutors stumbling, failing, and enduring shame as their power is reversed.

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

2 Thessalonians 1:6 · KJVIt places the trouble inflicted on the reader under God’s recompense, echoing this verse’s appeal that threat be answered with ruin.

THE THREAD

For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Psalm 1:6 · KJV

Both verses end with the Hebrew root ⁨אבד⁩ (ʾābad), meaning to perish or be lost. Psalm 1 applies that ending to the ungodly way itself, making loss the endpoint of the path.

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