What Does Psalm 11:6 Mean?
He rains snares upon the restless, fire and sulfur, and a scorching breath. This is the portion of their cup.
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
Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.THE KEY
The judgment does not merely fall on the wicked; it becomes the measured portion filling their own cup.
THE MEANING
The verse places you before an uncompromising picture of judgment: the wicked receive a storm that overwhelms them, and their cup is the portion set before them. Fire, brimstone, and violent wind make the ruin concrete; nothing in the image makes it mild or accidental.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that violence leaves its perpetrators untouched, or that they can choose what finally fills their cup.
THE ROOT
מְנָת
menat
GROWS FROM
מנה
manah
to count, appoint, or allot
The English “portion” sounds like a share, but its root also carries the sense of counting and assigning. The cup is not merely what they happen to drink; it is the measured share set before them.
ALSO GROWS
manah: to count, number, or appoint
מָנָה
The act of counting or appointing gives “portion” the sense of a share specifically allotted.
menah: a portion or share
מְנָה
This noun names the allotted share itself, echoing the verse’s image of judgment as what fills their cup.
יַמְטֵר
yamtir
GROWS FROM
מטר
matar
to rain or send down rain
“rains” in this verse is yamtir. The Hebrew verb for raining here also appears when brimstone and fire rain down in Genesis 19:24. The verse turns the familiar downward movement of rain into an image of judgment descending from above.
ALSO GROWS
matar: rain
מָטָר
The noun names the rain that this root can send down, making the verse’s downpour image concrete.
himtir: to cause to rain or shower down
הִמְטִיר
This causative form shares the root of the verse’s verb and is used for the fire and brimstone raining down in Genesis 19:24.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures judgment as a poured-out portion that falls from above and becomes the cup the guilty must drink.
Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of the heavens.But on the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven, and made them all perish.And he himself drinks from the wine of the seething of God, poured out undiluted into the cup of his swelling. And he is tormented in fire and sulfur before the face of the set-apart messengers, and before the face of the Lamb.THE THREAD
Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of the heavens.The Hebrew verb for “rain” here is the same verb in Genesis 19:24, where brimstone and fire fall from heaven. That shared root opens the Psalm’s storm into the same image of judgment poured down, while its cup shows the portion received.
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