What Does Psalm 91:6 Mean in the King James?

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

Psalm 91:6 · 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 leaves fear no blind spot: danger can move unseen in darkness or devastate in full daylight.

THE MEANING

Both threats are named: one moves through darkness, the other devastates at noon. The psalm’s assurance spans the hidden and the exposed, so danger’s timing does not define your safety.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that danger is manageable only when it can be seen: the verse names threats in both darkness and full daylight.

THE ROOT

יָשׁוּד

yāshūd

GROWS FROM

שׁדד

shadad

To plunder, ravage, or devastate.

“wasteth” in this verse is yāshūd. The second threat is pictured as active ravaging, not merely as an abstract disaster. The same root names both devastation and the one who despoils, giving the noon threat the force of an assailant even in full view.

ALSO GROWS

shōd: Devastation, plunder.

שֹׁד

The noun names the ravaging itself, echoing the verse’s destruction that strikes at noon.

shōdēd: Plunderer, despoiler.

שׁוֹדֵד

This branch makes the threat an active agent: the destruction is something that ravages.

THE PATTERN

The psalm’s assurance spans contrasting conditions, so no hour or environment has sole claim on danger.

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

Psalm 121:6 · KJVProtection spans both halves of the day, as this verse names threats at night and noon.

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

Isaiah 43:2 · KJVThe assurance holds through opposing dangers, flood and fire, just as Psalm 91 names threats in darkness and daylight.

Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:31 · KJVThe words address fear amid vulnerability, widening the pattern beyond a particular hour or kind of threat.

THE THREAD

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Psalm 91:5 · KJV

The previous verse pairs terror at night with an arrow by day. Verse 6 repeats that night-and-day structure, naming pestilence moving in darkness and devastation at noon.

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