What Does Psalm 59:6 Mean?
They turn back at evening, growling like dogs, and circle the city.
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
They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.THE KEY
The danger is a cycle, not a single attack: at evening it returns, roars, and circles the city.
THE MEANING
When danger keeps coming back at day’s end, it is felt as both sound and enclosure: noise in the air, movement all around the city. The threat is repeating and surrounding, not momentary.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a threat has passed because the day has ended is undone here: evening is when it returns.
THE ROOT
וִיסוֹבְבוּ
visovevu
GROWS FROM
סבב
sabab
To turn around, circle, or surround.
“circle” in this verse is visovevu. This verb places the threat on a circuit around the city; it does not describe a force merely passing by. The same root describes being “compassed” in Psalm 22:16, where dogs and a hostile assembly surround the speaker.
ALSO GROWS
saviv: Around, all around.
סָבִיב
The word makes the enclosing space explicit, echoing the threat’s movement around the city.
sibbev: Turned about, encircled.
סִבֵּב
This active form keeps the sense of a force moving around its target.
יָשׁוּבוּ
yashuvu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
To turn back, return, or bring back.
“turn back” in this verse is yashuvu. The verb marks the danger as recurring: it comes back at evening. This root can also carry the sense of restoration, so the motion of returning may restore what has strayed or bring the threat back into view.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Return, turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
The noun names a return or turning back, sharpening the verse’s sense of recurrence.
yeshovev: Restore, bring back.
יְשׁוֹבֵב
Psalm 23:3 uses this verb family for restoring the soul; here the returning motion brings danger back.
יֶהֱמוּ
yehemu
GROWS FROM
הָמָה
hamah
To murmur, roar, or make a tumult.
“growling” in this verse is yehemu. The verb can describe sound that swells into a roar or commotion. The dog’s noise is therefore not incidental; it makes the threat audible as it circles.
ALSO GROWS
hamon: Tumult, din, or crowd.
הָמוֹן
This noun gathers noise and a surging crowd into one word, fitting the verse’s image of a threatening presence.
hamiyah: A hum or murmur.
הֲמִיָּה
This softer sound-word shares the root’s movement from low murmur to louder roar.
THE PATTERN
A threat that circles its target becomes a surrounding presence, whether the target is a person or a city.
For dogs have circled me; an assembly of evildoers has surrounded me; they bore through my hands and my feet.All nations circle me; in the nature of the LORD I cut them off.THE THREAD
For dogs have circled me; an assembly of evildoers has surrounded me; they bore through my hands and my feet.“Go round about” here and “compassed” there come from the same Hebrew root for circling and surrounding. The image shifts from a city encircled by dogs to a person enclosed by dogs and an assembly.
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