What Does Psalm 101:8 Mean?
At dawn I will cut off all the wicked of the land, that I may cut away from the city of the LORD all the workers of crookedness.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD.THE KEY
The verse treats the LORD’s city as a boundary guarded, morning after morning, by cutting practiced wrongdoing out of its shared life.
THE MEANING
The verse places a severe boundary around the LORD’s city. Its speaker vows, morning after morning, to destroy all the wicked of the land and cut off all who practice wrongdoing from that city. The stated action is removal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The LORD’s city can preserve its character while making room for those who keep doing harm.
THE ROOT
לְהַכְרִית
lehakrit
GROWS FROM
כרת
karat
to cut, cut away, or cut off
“cut away” in this verse is lehakrit. The verse’s “cut off” comes from כרת (karat), a root also used in the expression כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit), “cut a covenant.” The shared image gives the city’s boundary weight: the verse describes severing a damaging presence from its life.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: to cut a covenant
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same verb can describe entering a binding covenant; here, cutting marks the boundary the speaker vows to maintain.
yikkaretu: they shall be cut off
יִכָּרֵתוּ
Psalm 37:9 uses this form of the same root for evildoers, extending the image beyond this city.
פֹּעֲלֵי
po’alei
GROWS FROM
פעל
pa’al
to do, make, or work
“workers of crookedness” in this verse is po’alei. The Hebrew phrase פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן (po’alei aven) means “workers of trouble” or “doers of harm.” It identifies wrongdoing as practiced activity, focusing the verse on those who make harm their work.
ALSO GROWS
po’el: worker or doer
פֹּעֵל
The same root names the person by what they do, reinforcing the verse’s focus on practiced action.
pe’ullah: work, deed, or activity
פְּעֻלָּה
This related word keeps the root’s focus on action and work, clarifying the force of “workers” in the verse.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s dwelling is pictured as protected by excluding persistent wrongdoing from its shared space.
For the evildoers will be cut off, and those stretched toward the LORD will inherit the land.But the wicked are cut off from the earth, and the treacherous are uprooted from it.No common thing enters it, nor whoever makes foulness or a lie, except those written in the Lamb's scroll of life.THE THREAD
For the evildoers will be cut off, and those stretched toward the LORD will inherit the land.Psalm 37:9 uses the same root כרת (karat, cut off) as Psalm 101:8. Psalm 101 locates this cutting at the boundary of the LORD’s city; Psalm 37 extends the image across the earth, where evildoers lose their place and those who wait upon the LORD inherit it.
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