What Does Zechariah 1:15 Mean in the King James?
And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.
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 nations are indicted as helpers of harm: their support enlarges the suffering instead of relieving it.
THE MEANING
The verse distinguishes God’s limited anger from the added harm the nations bring. It speaks now wherever people who feel secure lend strength to someone else’s suffering: that added harm belongs to those who advance it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the excuse that harm does not count if someone else began it; helping the suffering forward adds a new injury and responsibility.
THE ROOT
עָזְרוּ
ʿāzərû
GROWS FROM
עזר
ʿ-z-r
To help, support, or give aid.
“helped forward” in this verse is ʿāzərû. The root makes the nations’ role startling: assistance can push suffering onward instead of relieving it. They do not merely witness the affliction; they add strength to it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēzer: Help or aid.
עֵזֶר
The same root names support without deciding whether that support heals or harms; here it strengthens affliction.
ʿezrāh: Help or support.
עֶזְרָה
This branch echoes the act of lending force: the direction of the help depends on what it serves.
קָצַפְתִּי
qāṣaftî
GROWS FROM
קצף
q-ṣ-p
To be angry or indignant; anger.
The same anger-root appears in the opening’s great displeasure and again in the phrase “I was but a little displeased.” That repetition sets God’s measure beside the nations’ added harm, keeping the two distinct.
ALSO GROWS
qāṣaph: To be angry or indignant.
קָצַף
This verb form appears in the verse’s statement that the anger was small.
qetseph: Anger or fury.
קֶצֶף
This noun form appears in the opening description of great displeasure, tying both measures to the same root.
THE PATTERN
A force that adds harm to another’s burden becomes answerable for the injury it advances.
And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.THE THREAD
My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.The word for “help” in both verses comes from עזר (ʿ-z-r), meaning help or support. Zechariah shows support strengthening harm; the psalm shows that same capacity directed toward the reader’s protection, revealing that help takes its direction from what it serves.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us