What Does Psalm 106:18 Mean?
A fire blazed in their assembly, and a flame scorched the restless ones.
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
And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.THE KEY
The flame is already inside the gathering, so the company cannot shelter the wicked from its reach.
THE MEANING
A fire rises inside the gathered company, and its flame consumes the wicked there. The gathering offers no shelter from the force burning within it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that belonging to a company can shield wickedness: the fire rises within that very gathering.
THE ROOT
וַתִּבְעַר
vat-tiv'ar
GROWS FROM
בער
ba'ar
Burn or blaze; in an intensive form, clear away or purge.
“blazed” in this verse is vat-tiv'ar. The verb behind “kindled” also carries the sense of burning, while another form of the same root means to purge evil from the midst. The root holds burning and removal together: the flame consumes what is wicked within the assembly.
ALSO GROWS
bo'er: Burning, blazing.
בֹּעֵר
Exodus uses this form for the bush burning with fire, showing that the root names burning even when the bush is not consumed.
bi'er: Remove, clear away, purge.
בִּעֵר
This form describes putting evil away from among the people, linking the flame’s consuming action with the removal of wickedness.
בַּעֲדָתָם
baʿădātām
GROWS FROM
יעד
ya'ad
Appoint, designate, or set a meeting.
The word for their company is עֵדָה (edah), an assembly associated with the root יעד (ya’ad), to appoint or meet. The fire rises within a gathered company, placing its reach in the middle of the assembly itself.
ALSO GROWS
ya'ad: Appoint, designate, meet.
יָעַד
The verb connects the company with a gathering formed by meeting or appointment.
mo'ed: Appointed time, meeting, or meeting place.
מוֹעֵד
This related word carries the sense of a set meeting, deepening the image of fire appearing within an assembled group.
THE PATTERN
When scripture depicts fire in God’s presence, it reaches what opposes him and consumes it.
THE THREAD
And the messenger of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not eaten up.Both verses use בער (ba’ar), meaning to burn or blaze: the bush burns without being consumed, while here the flame consumes the wicked. The shared root joins the images of burning, while the different outcomes show that the root itself does not simply mean destruction.
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