What Does Psalm 94:20 Mean in the King James?
Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?
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
A law can give harm an official shape, but the verse asks whether that shape can belong in fellowship with God.
THE MEANING
This question exposes the divide between communion with God and power that gives harm a legal shape. It speaks wherever a rule makes injury seem legitimate or routine: legality can frame mischief without making it just.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that harm authorized by a rule must be just. A statute can formalize wrongdoing without making it fit for fellowship with God.
THE ROOT
יֹצֵר
yōṣēr one who
GROWS FROM
יצר
y-ṣ-r
To form, fashion, or shape.
“frameth” in this verse is yōṣēr one who. The root that describes forming a person also describes fashioning trouble here. The verse presents mischief as something deliberately given shape, with a statute serving as its mold.
ALSO GROWS
yōṣēr: One who forms; a potter or former.
יוֹצֵר
The same word-form names the shaper, showing that the harm in this verse is being fashioned, not merely encountered.
yēṣer: Formation, design, or inclination.
יֵצֶר
This branch carries the idea of what has been formed or shaped, echoing the verse’s picture of trouble deliberately given form.
חֹק
ḥōq statute
GROWS FROM
חקק
ḥ-q-q
To cut or engrave; by extension, to inscribe or decree.
“a law” in this verse is ḥōq statute. This word can mean a prescribed statute or fixed ordinance. The verse depicts a rule being made to carry trouble, so its official form does not erase what it does.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāqaq: To inscribe, engrave, or decree.
חָקַק
The verb gives the statute its written or prescribed form, linking the rule to the deliberate shaping of harm.
məḥōqēq: A lawgiver or one who decrees.
מְחֹקֵק
This branch points to the authority behind a decree, showing that the verse concerns power working through rules.
הַיְחָבְרְךָ
ha-yəḥāḇrəḵā shall it
GROWS FROM
חבר
ḥ-b-r
To join, bind together, or associate.
“have fellowship” in this verse is ha-yəḥāḇrəḵā shall it. The question is whether a throne devoted to ruin can be joined with God. This root names association or alliance, so the tension is not mere proximity but what can truly be in communion with God.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāḇēr: Companion or associate.
חָבֵר
A companion is one joined to another, making the verse’s question about alliance concrete.
ḥeḇer: Company, band, or association.
חֶבֶר
This branch carries the sense of a joined group, reinforcing the question of whether ruinous power can belong in God’s company.
THE PATTERN
When power gives harm the shape of law, its official form does not make it just.
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.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.The word translated “formed” in Genesis comes from יָצַר (yatsar), the same root behind “frameth” here. The same shaping can give form to a human or to trouble made into statute; this verse asks what that power is serving.
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