What Does Psalm 28:4 Mean?
Give them according to their deeds, and according to the breaking of their doings. Give them according to the work of their hands; turn back upon them their due.
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
Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert.THE KEY
“Their desert” is גְּמוּלָם (gemulām), their recompense: the verse frames what comes back to them as a return measured by the work their hands have done.
THE MEANING
This prayer holds action answerable: what people do, including the work their hands produce, becomes the measure of what is asked to return to them. It gives harmful work weight and refuses to detach it from its makers.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that harmful work disappears once it is done; the verse binds the work to what is returned.
THE ROOT
גְּמוּלָם
gemulām
GROWS FROM
גמל
To deal with someone or requite them; in this form, recompense.
“desert” in this verse is gemulām. The closing word names what is given back as a dealing that answers to what came before. The root also describes generous dealing elsewhere, so the surrounding words show whether the return is bounty or a hard recompense.
ALSO GROWS
gāmal: To deal with or requite.
גָּמַל
In Psalm 13:6, the same verb describes the LORD dealing bountifully with the speaker.
gemul: Recompense or a return dealing.
גְּמוּל
This noun gives a name to the return asked for at the end of the verse.
פָּעֳלָם
paʿolam
GROWS FROM
פעל
To do, work, or act.
“according to their deeds” in this verse is paʿolam. This root keeps the measure attached to what is done. The verse repeats the language of work and action, moving from their deeds to the work of their hands.
ALSO GROWS
poʿal: Work or deed.
פֹּעַל
It is the action named in the verse’s opening measure.
poʿel: A worker or one who acts.
פֹּעֵל
The same family names both the work and the one whose actions are being answered.
תֵּן
ten
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“give” in this verse is ten. The same verb opens and closes the verse: first the requested giving is measured by their work, then it is named as giving them their recompense. The repeated word makes the return itself a kind of giving.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb repeated in the verse’s opening and closing petitions.
mattan: A gift or present.
מַתָּן
The noun carries the same root’s sense of something given.
THE PATTERN
What people set into action becomes the measure of what is returned to them.
And yours, O Lord, is faithful love, for you repay each man according to his deed.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
I will sing to the LORD, for he has dealt fully with me.“Dealt bountifully” uses the same root, גמל (gamal), as “recompense” here. The root names a dealing that comes to someone; the surrounding words show whether that dealing is bounty or a hard return.
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