What Does Psalm 18:37 Mean?
I pursue my enemies and overtake them, and I do not turn back until they run out.
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
I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.THE KEY
The Hebrew chase-verb here also describes goodness pursuing the speaker elsewhere: what is pursued gives the pursuit its character.
THE MEANING
You hear the speaker’s unbroken pursuit: he overtakes his enemies and does not turn back until they are consumed. Their destruction is the stated endpoint of this violence.
THE ROOT
אֶרְדּוֹף
ʾerdōf
GROWS FROM
ר־ד־ף
r-d-p
Pursue, chase, press after.
The verb comes from רדף (radaf, “pursue” or “chase”). Psalm 23:6 uses this same root when goodness and mercy “shall follow” the speaker; the action stays a chase, while its object changes.
ALSO GROWS
radaf: Pursue, chase.
רָדַף
This verb names the speaker’s direct pursuit of his enemies.
rodef: A pursuer, one who chases.
רֹדֵף
The same root can name the one doing the pursuing, a role Psalm 23:6 gives to goodness and mercy.
אָשׁוּב
ʾāshuv
GROWS FROM
ש־ו־ב
sh-w-b
Turn, return, come back.
The speaker says he does not return or turn back before the enemies reach their end. Elsewhere this root can describe bringing something back or restoring it, so here the return is withheld until the pursuit is complete.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn, return.
שׁוּב
This is the root’s basic movement, named here as the direction the speaker refuses to reverse.
heshiv: Bring back, restore.
הֵשִׁיב
The causative form carries the sense of returning something; this verse instead holds the speaker’s return until the conflict reaches its end.
כַּלּוֹתָם
kallotam
GROWS FROM
כ־ל־ה
k-l-h
Finish, complete, come to an end; in this context, be consumed.
“run out” in this verse is kallotam. The verse’s endpoint comes from the root of finishing or reaching an end, carrying completion together with destruction. The pursuit continues until the enemies themselves reach that end.
ALSO GROWS
kalah: Finish, complete, come to an end.
כָּלָה
It reveals the endpoint inside “consumed”: the pursuit lasts until the enemies’ ending is complete.
kilyon: Destruction, wasting away.
כִּלָּיוֹן
This related noun carries the destructive force that the verb takes on in this verse.
THE PATTERN
Scriptural pursuit takes its direction from its object and moves toward an end shaped by that object.
And David asked of the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them, and without fail snatch back all.Surely goodness and faithful love pursue me all the days of my life, and I settle in the house of the LORD for the length of days.Pursue wholeness with all, and the setting apart, without which no one will perceive the LORD.THE THREAD
Surely goodness and faithful love pursue me all the days of my life, and I settle in the house of the LORD for the length of days.Both verses use רדף (radaf, “pursue” or “chase”). Psalm 18:37 places the speaker in pursuit of enemies; Psalm 23:6 gives that pursuing action to goodness and mercy moving toward the speaker.
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