What Does Psalm 140:8 Mean?
Do not give, O LORD, the cravings of the wicked; do not let his scheme come forth, lest they lift themselves. Selah.
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
Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked: further not his wicked device; lest they exalt themselves. Selah.THE KEY
The prayer asks that no destructive desire be given a place to rise into power.
THE MEANING
This verse gives the reader words for a present danger: destructive desire can gather into a scheme aimed at self-exaltation. The plea asks the LORD not to set that desire in place or advance the plot toward power. It names a space between what someone wants and what comes to rule over others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that a destructive intention must become authority: the verse names the LORD’s withholding as an interruption between desire and power.
THE ROOT
תִּתֵּן
titten
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, or place.
“do not give” in this verse is titten. The plea is about refusing to give the desire a place to take effect. The root makes “grant” concrete: what is wanted need not be set into motion or established.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb behind “grant”; the prayer asks that the desire not be given its way.
mattanah: Gift or present.
מַתָּנָה
The related noun shows the root’s movement of giving; here, the requested gift is precisely withheld.
זְמָמוֹ
zemamo
GROWS FROM
זמם
Devise, plot, or form a plan.
The second line moves from wanting to a scheme being worked out. The threat is not only a passing impulse; it is an intention taking shape and seeking to advance.
ALSO GROWS
zamam: Devise or plot.
זָמַם
This verb names the deliberate forming of the plan the verse asks not to advance.
mezimmah: Plan, device, or scheme.
מְזִמָּה
This related noun shows the same root describing an intention shaped into a course of action.
יָרוּמוּ
yarumu
GROWS FROM
רום
Rise, be high, or raise up.
“lift themselves” in this verse is yarumu. The scheme’s endpoint is a rise into power or status. Hebrew makes the movement visible: they rise high, so the verse traces a path from desire, to plan, to self-elevation.
ALSO GROWS
rum: Rise or be high.
רוּם
This is the root behind “exalt themselves”; their intended elevation is expressed as a rising.
marom: Height or high place.
מָרוֹם
This related word gives the root’s upward movement a place-like sense, echoing the status the scheme seeks.
THE PATTERN
Self-exaltation is an unstable rise: the LORD can withhold it, and those who raise themselves can be brought low.
For God is the judge. This one he brings low, and this one he lifts.Swelling goes before breaking, and a breath lifted high goes before a stumbling.For everyone who lifts himself will be brought low; and the one who lowers himself will be lifted up.THE THREAD
The LORD strips, and makes rich; he lays low, and lifts high.“Lifteth up” shares the Hebrew root רום (rum), “to rise” or “be high,” with “they exalt themselves” in this verse. Psalm 140 asks that their self-raised height not be granted; here, the LORD is the one who brings low and raises up.
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