What Does Psalm 9:16 Mean in the King James?
The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
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 work that becomes the wicked person’s snare is what makes the LORD’s judgment visible.
THE MEANING
The LORD is known through the judgment he carries out; what he does makes his nature visible. The wicked person is caught in the work of his own hands, so the consequence exposes the deed from within it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a person’s work can remain separate from its consequences: the deed itself becomes the snare.
THE ROOT
נוֹדָע
nodaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
yada
To know, perceive, or recognize through encounter.
The form translated “is known” comes from a root that can mean knowing or perceiving, and can carry the sense “is made known.” The LORD’s judgment is an encounter through which his nature becomes perceptible.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or perceive.
יָדַע
Its sense of knowing through encounter gives “known” more depth than simply possessing information about the LORD.
hodiʿa: To make known or declare.
הוֹדִיעַ
This causative form shows how the same root can describe something becoming known through an act that reveals it.
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
shafat
To judge, govern, or administer justice.
The verse presents judgment as something the LORD does, not merely a verdict attached to him. His justice becomes visible in what unfolds, including the wicked person’s work turning into a snare.
ALSO GROWS
shafat: To judge or govern.
שָׁפַט
The verb shows judgment as an action, matching the verse’s statement that the LORD carries it out.
shofet: A judge, one who administers judgment.
שֹׁפֵט
This branch names the one who acts in judgment and helps connect mishpat to the LORD’s revealed character.
נוקש
noqesh
GROWS FROM
יקש
yaqash
To set a snare or entrap.
“snared” in this verse is noqesh. This root’s branches name both the act of trapping and the trap itself. Here the trap is in the wicked person’s own work: what the hands make becomes what catches its maker.
ALSO GROWS
yaqosh: To set a snare or entrap.
יָקֹשׁ
The verbal branch makes the trapping an action, which the verse locates in the wicked person’s own work.
moqesh: A snare or trap.
מוֹקֵשׁ
The noun branch names the trap that the person’s work becomes.
THE PATTERN
A person’s deeds return as their consequence, making the judgment within those deeds visible.
His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.Jeremiah places knowing the LORD alongside his exercise of judgment, showing that knowing him includes perceiving what he does. Psalm 9 gives a stark instance: the wicked person’s own work becomes the snare through which that judgment is seen.
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