What Does Psalm 37:22 Mean?
For those he blesses inherit the land, and those he curses are cut off.
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
For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off.THE KEY
The verse makes blessing a posture that opens into possession of the earth, while curse ends in severance from it.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two outcomes before you now: those blessed by God inherit the earth, while those under curse are cut off. Blessing reaches beyond an inward feeling to belonging in the world; the opposite is severance.
THE ROOT
יִירְשׁוּ
yirshu
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
Take possession, inherit; in some contexts, dispossess.
“inherit” in this verse is yirshu. The root holds both inheriting and possessing, so this is more than receiving a title or a distant promise: it is coming into a place in the earth. Set beside “cut off,” it makes the verse’s contrast one of inhabiting or being severed.
ALSO GROWS
yarash: To possess or inherit.
יָרַשׁ
This is the root behind “inherit,” making the verse’s promise concrete: the blessed come to possess the earth.
morashah: An inherited possession.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This related form carries inheritance as something held and occupied, not merely imagined.
מְבֹרָכָיו
mevorakhav
GROWS FROM
ברך
Bless; the same consonants also form the word for knee or kneel.
“blesses” in this verse is mevorakhav. The root links blessing with the posture of the bent knee, bringing a bodily image into what can sound like an abstract label. Here, those blessed by God are bound to a tangible outcome: a place in the earth.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: The knee; the related verb can mean kneel.
בֶּרֶךְ
This branch supplies the bodily image carried alongside blessing in the shared root.
berakhah: A blessing or bestowed favor.
בְּרָכָה
This noun from the same root shows that the verse speaks of blessing as a condition that opens into inheritance.
יִכָּרֵתוּ
yikkaretu
GROWS FROM
כרת
Cut, sever.
“cut off” in this verse is yikkaretu. The Hebrew keeps the image of a cut: the cursed are not merely disadvantaged but severed. The same verb appears in the phrase “cut a covenant,” so the word carries the force of a decisive dividing act.
ALSO GROWS
karat: To cut or sever.
כָּרַת
This is the root action beneath “cut off,” preserving the sharpness of the verse’s outcome.
karat berit: To make a covenant, literally “cut a covenant.”
כָּרַת בְּרִית
This familiar phrase shows the root’s force in a decisive act; here the cut marks severance from the earth.
THE PATTERN
Blessing opens a future of belonging, while curse leads toward loss and severance.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.For the evildoers will be cut off, and those stretched toward the LORD will inherit the land.Flourishing are the bowed, for they inherit the earth.THE THREAD
Now therefore hear and respond, O Israel, to the statutes and the judgments that I train you in, to do them, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers gives you.The word translated “possess” comes from the same ירשׁ (yarash, possess or inherit) root as “inherit” here. That root makes inheritance concrete: it is entering and possessing a place in the earth.
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