What Does Psalm 64:5 Mean?
They grip an evil word for themselves; they recount hiding snares, and say, Who sees them?
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 encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?THE KEY
They are not merely hiding the evil; they are strengthening themselves inside it.
THE MEANING
Harm gains confidence as its planners reinforce it in speech and conceal it from view. The question “Who shall see them?” exposes the assumption that what is hidden from people is unseen altogether.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that concealment makes wrongdoing invisible.
THE ROOT
יְחַזְּקוּ
yĕḥazzĕqû
GROWS FROM
חזק
ḥ-z-q
Be strong; strengthen; make firm.
“grip” in this verse is yĕḥazzĕqû. The verb says they make themselves strong in the evil matter. The verse reveals resolve growing around the harmful plan before its makers ask who can see it.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzāq: Strong; firm.
חָזָק
This adjective carries the same seed of strength, showing that the planners are making their purpose feel firm.
ḥăzaq: Be strong; take hold.
חֲזַק
The same root appears in Psalm 27:14, where the KJV renders it “be of good courage”; that verse becomes the Thread.
יְסַפְּרוּ
yĕsapperû
GROWS FROM
ספר
s-p-r
Count; recount; tell.
“they recount” in this verse is yĕsapperû. Beneath “commune” is a verb whose range includes recounting and telling. Their plan is spoken through and elaborated, becoming a shared account rather than remaining an unspoken intention.
ALSO GROWS
sēfer: Book; scroll.
סֵפֶר
A written account grows from the same root of recounting, linking speech with a thing set down and preserved.
mispar: Number; count.
מִסְפָּר
The root’s counting sense adds the texture of details being enumerated as the plan is recounted.
THE PATTERN
A hidden plot draws strength from shared speech, but concealment cannot make it unseen.
If they say, Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us hide for the clean, for nothing.The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the harm and the good.For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.THE THREAD
Be stretched toward the LORD; hold fast, and he makes your heart firm; be stretched toward the LORD.Psalm 64:5 uses the root חזק (ḥ-z-q), meaning “strengthen,” for people reinforcing themselves around a harmful plan; Psalm 27:14 uses the same root in “be of good courage.” The shared seed is strength, and each verse shows what that strength gathers around.
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