What Does Psalm 118:10 Mean?
All nations circle me; in the nature of the LORD I cut them off.
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
All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.THE KEY
When every nation closes in, the speaker grounds a brutal counterstroke in the LORD’s nature: the verse says he will destroy them.
THE MEANING
This verse places you inside a conflict where opposition closes around you, and the speaker’s footing is the LORD’s name, his nature, not a verbal charm. He answers with an unsoftened declaration: he will destroy those who surround him. The line holds trust and violence together without dissolving either.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse breaks is that being outnumbered means you are already defeated: the speaker names the LORD’s nature as the ground from which he can answer.
THE ROOT
סְבָבוּנִי
sevavuni
GROWS FROM
סבב
sabab
To go around, circle, or surround.
“circle me” in this verse is sevavuni. The Hebrew says that all nations have circled the speaker, making the pressure an enclosing ring. The same root repeats twice in the next verse, so the circling feels like sustained pressure rather than a passing image.
ALSO GROWS
saviv: Around; surrounding.
סָבִיב
It carries the same spatial sense of being encircled that shapes the verse.
sevivah: Surroundings; environment.
סְבִיבָה
It shows how the root can name the whole space around someone, not just a single movement.
אָמִילַם
amilam
GROWS FROM
מול
mul
To cut; to circumcise, and in this form, to cut them off.
“I cut them off” in this verse is amilam. The verb translated “destroy” carries the force of cutting off. Its root also names circumcision, a literal cutting away; here the word’s force remains severe, naming the speaker’s intent to destroy those surrounding him.
ALSO GROWS
mul: To circumcise; to cut away.
מוּל
It shows the physical cutting force carried by the root behind the speaker’s threat.
milah: Circumcision.
מִילָה
This related noun preserves the root’s sense of cutting, clarifying the force behind “destroy.”
THE PATTERN
Encircling opposition does not hold the final authority when the speaker stands in the LORD’s nature.
I will not fear before ten thousands of people, who set themselves against me all around.And he answered, Do not fear, for those with us are more than those with them.What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?THE THREAD
They circle me, yes, they circle me; in the nature of the LORD I cut them off.The next verse repeats the same Hebrew root for circling twice, making the encirclement feel relentless. Its repetition opens up verse 10’s image: the speaker faces pressure that keeps closing around him, then answers in the LORD’s name.
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