What Does Psalm 139:19 Mean?
Surely you slay the wicked, O God; men of blood, turn aside from me.
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
Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.THE KEY
The verse makes violence a presence that can be told to turn aside, while judgment belongs to God.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks plainly: God slays the wicked, and the men marked by blood are told to depart from the speaker. Violence is named directly, and the speaker’s boundary is clear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a faithful voice must soften violent judgment or welcome violent people into its immediate presence.
THE ROOT
סוּרוּ
sûrû
GROWS FROM
סור
סור (sûr): to turn aside, withdraw, depart.
“turn aside” in this verse is sûrû. The command carries the sense of turning aside as well as leaving. The verse gives violence a direction away from the speaker, making the boundary active rather than abstract.
ALSO GROWS
sûr: To turn aside or depart; the infinitive form.
סוּר
It names the movement beneath the command addressed to the men of blood.
lāsûr: To turn aside or depart; an infinitive with the prefix לָ (lā), “to.”
לָסוּר
It preserves the same root consonants and shows the command’s movement as an action: to turn aside.
רָשָׁע
rāšāʿ
GROWS FROM
רשע
רשע (rāšaʿ): to act wickedly, to be in the wrong.
The same root names the wicked person, wickedness, and the act of doing wrong. Beside “men of blood,” it makes wrongdoing concrete as an active condition bound up with violence.
ALSO GROWS
rešaʿ: Wickedness, wrongdoing.
רֶשַׁע
The noun names the condition expressed by the people called wicked in the verse.
rāšaʿ: To act wickedly, to do wrong.
רָשַׁע
The verb shows that the root also describes wrongdoing in motion, not only a fixed label for a person.
THE PATTERN
Violent wrong is named plainly, given no welcome in the speaker’s presence, and placed under God’s judgment.
Turn aside from me, all you workers of crookedness; for the LORD hears the voice of my weeping.Do not be wise in your own eyes. Be in awe of the LORD, and turn aside from harm.Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.THE THREAD
Turn aside from me, all you workers of crookedness; for the LORD hears the voice of my weeping.Psalm 6:8 repeats the Hebrew imperative סוּרוּ (sûrû, “turn aside/depart”) and the same “from me” boundary. The shared root makes the departure a clear turning away from the speaker.
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