What Does Psalm 9:18 Mean in the King James?

For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.

Psalm 9:18 · 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 verse places two forms of erasure, being forgotten and having expectation perish, side by side, and denies that either is final.

THE MEANING

Your need does not place you outside what is remembered. The expectation you carry is not discarded because the present feels endless; the verse holds both you and what you await beyond permanent erasure.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Need does not prove you are forgotten, and delay does not mean your hope has already been lost.

THE ROOT

תִּקְוַת

tiqvat

GROWS FROM

קוה

⁨קוה⁩ (qavah): to wait for, hope, expect; also to gather or collect.

Expectation grows from the same root that names gathering, as in ⁨מִקְוֶה⁩ (miqveh, a gathering or collection). Hope is pictured as gathered toward what is awaited, and the verse says this held future does not disappear.

ALSO GROWS

miqveh: A gathering or collection, including a gathering of waters.

מִקְוֶה

This branch lets expectation carry the image of something gathered toward what is coming.

tiqvah: Hope or expectation; the noun in its absolute form.

תִּקְוָה

It is the same noun found here in its construct form, linking what the poor await to the root’s sense of waiting in hope.

תֹּאבַד

to'vad

GROWS FROM

אבד

⁨אבד⁩ (avad): to be lost, perish, or be destroyed.

“perish” in this verse is to'vad. The verb can mean to become lost, and its family includes words for loss and destruction. The verse pairs this with being forgotten: neither the poor nor what they hope for becomes a lost thing.

ALSO GROWS

avedah: Loss or something lost.

אֲבֵדָה

This branch makes the verse’s promise concrete: the poor person’s expectation does not become a loss.

avaddon: Destruction or ruin.

אֲבַדּוֹן

The verse denies that the expectation of the poor ends in ruin, even when the present seems to stretch on.

THE PATTERN

Present poverty does not erase the poor from divine attention or from the future God promises.

For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

Psalm 12:5 · KJVThe LORD hears the poor and needy and answers their oppression by arising to set them in safety.

And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

Luke 6:20 · KJVThe poor are named as belonging to God’s kingdom, so their present condition does not decide their future.

Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

James 2:5 · KJVThe poor are named as heirs of what God promises, giving their present lack a future that outlasts it.

THE THREAD

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Jeremiah 29:11 · KJV

Jeremiah carries the same Hebrew noun, ⁨תִּקְוָה⁩ (tiqvah, hope or expectation), from ⁨קוה⁩ (qavah, to wait for or hope), though the KJV renders the phrase as an expected end. This joins the poor person’s expectation to a future God gives, opening the psalm’s promise beyond the present.

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