What Does Psalm 34:16 Mean?
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
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
The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.THE KEY
The LORD’s opposition reaches into memory itself: those who do evil are cut off from the earth’s remembrance.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s face stands against those who do evil, and the verse names the consequence as their remembrance being cut off from the earth. The image reaches beyond punishment to the loss of their place in the human story.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the LORD is indifferent to active evil: the same divine presence that watches over the righteous is set against those who do it.
THE ROOT
לְהַכְרִית
lehakhrît
GROWS FROM
כרת
To cut or sever.
“cut off” in this verse is lehakhrît. The verse pictures remembrance as something severed, not merely forgotten. The same root is used for cutting a covenant, giving this image the force of a decisive separation.
ALSO GROWS
karat: To cut or sever; used in the phrase כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit), to cut a covenant.
כָּרַת
The covenant phrase shows how this root can describe a binding act of separation or commitment; here it describes remembrance being severed from the earth.
keritut: Severance; a certificate of divorce.
כְּרִיתוּת
This branch carries the sense of a bond being cut, illuminating the finality in the verse’s image of remembrance cut off.
זִכְרָם
zikhrām
GROWS FROM
זכר
To remember or call to mind.
What is threatened is not only life but a place in memory. Hebrew ties remembrance to the act of keeping someone in mind, so the verse pictures the end of their continuing presence in the human story.
ALSO GROWS
zākhar: To remember or call to mind.
זָכַר
The verb makes remembrance an active keeping in mind, the very thing the verse says will be cut off.
zikkārôn: A memorial or remembrance.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial preserves someone’s place in memory; this verse describes that preservation ending.
פְּנֵי
penei
GROWS FROM
פנה
To turn or direct toward.
The Hebrew face-word can also carry the sense of presence, so the opposition here is not an abstract verdict: the LORD’s presence is set against those doing evil. The preceding verse turns the eyes and ears toward the righteous, making divine attention directional.
ALSO GROWS
pānāh: To turn or face toward.
פָּנָה
The verb adds direction to the image of the LORD’s face, which the verse presents as turned against evildoers.
lifnê: Before; in the presence of.
לִפְנֵי
This form shows how the face-word also carries the sense of presence, sharpening the relational force of the verse.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pairs the LORD’s attention to the righteous with the loss or severing of evil’s legacy.
The eyes of the LORD are upon the aligned, and his ears are open to their cry.The remembrance of the aligned is for blessing, but the name of the restless rots.For the eyes of the LORD are upon the aligned, and his ears are open to their pleading; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.THE THREAD
For the LORD loves judgment and does not leave his faithful ones. They are guarded for the ages, but the seed of the wicked will be cut off.Both verses use כרת (karat, to cut or sever): here the remembrance of evildoers is cut off, while there the seed of the wicked is cut off. Together they extend the image from memory to continuity across generations.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us