What Does Psalm 94:23 Mean in the King James?
And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off.
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 phrase “bring upon” is וַיָּשֶׁב (vayyashev, “he brings back”), from שׁוּב (shuv, “return”): what they have done comes back as the means of their own removal.
THE MEANING
Wrongdoing does not remain outside the one who does it; it returns upon its source. The LORD our God brings their own wrongdoing back upon them and cuts them off through the very wickedness they enact.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that harm can remain separate from the one who causes it is undone: their own wrongdoing returns upon them.
THE ROOT
וַיָּשֶׁב
vayyashev
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
turn back; return
“bring upon” in this verse is vayyashev. The verse’s וַיָּשֶׁב (vayyashev, “he brings back”) comes from שׁוּב (shuv, “return”). The consequence is pictured as what the wrongdoers have set in motion coming back upon them; the verse then says יַצְמִיתֵם (yatzmitem, “he cuts them off”), completing that return.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: to return; to turn back
שׁוּב
This is the root itself: the verse’s judgment carries the sense of what was done returning to its source.
hēshīv: he brought back; he returned
הֵשִׁיב
This related verb form makes the return explicit, illuminating the force of “bring upon” in the verse.
teshuvah: return; turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun preserves the same return pattern: what turns away can turn back, echoing the verse’s movement of consequence back toward its source.
THE PATTERN
What is cast outward returns to its source and becomes the measure of its consequence.
For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.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
For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.Obadiah uses יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “it shall return”) from שׁוּב (shuv, “return”), the same root in Psalm 94:23’s וַיָּשֶׁב (vayyashev, “he brings back”). Both verses show the consequence returning upon the one whose actions set it in motion.
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