What Does Psalm 64:6 Mean?
They search out crookedness; they finish a close search, and the inward of each one, and the heart, is deep.
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 search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.THE KEY
The verse binds a meticulous search for crookedness to an inner life whose heart remains deep.
THE MEANING
A person can pursue crookedness with care, while the thought driving that pursuit reaches deeper than the surface reveals. The verse holds deliberate searching and a hidden heart together: completing a search does not make the heart transparent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that visible actions make a person’s motives easy to read; the heart remains deep beneath what can be seen.
THE ROOT
עָמֹק
ʿāmōq
GROWS FROM
עמק
ʿ-m-q
To be deep or profound.
The same root names depth in the heart and depth in the landscape. Here, “deep” points to an inward life with layers that a search does not immediately expose.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēmeq: Valley
עֵמֶק
The root names a physical depth in the land as well as depth within the heart.
maʿămaqqîm: Depths
מַעֲמַקִּים
This plural form uses the same root, giving depth the sense of a place one can be within.
קֶרֶב
qerev
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
To approach or draw near; qerev names the inner part or midst.
The phrase for “inward thought” uses a word for the inner part or center. Its word family also carries the sense of nearness, placing the thought at the person’s intimate core rather than at the surface.
ALSO GROWS
qarov: Near, close
קָרוֹב
The shared root connects inwardness with what is nearest or most central.
qorbān: Drawing near
קָרְבָּן
This word’s root carries approach; the verse’s inward thought belongs to the close, central space within a person.
עוֹלוֹת
ʿawōlōṯ
GROWS FROM
עול
ʿ-w-l
To act unjustly or deal crookedly.
The word translated “iniquities” names wrongs that are being actively searched out. Paired with the deep heart, it places deliberate crookedness within an interior whose full design is not readily visible.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāwal: To act unjustly
עָוַל
The verbal form makes crookedness an action being pursued, not merely a label.
ʿāwel: Injustice, wrong
עָוֶל
This related noun names the crooked action the search is directed toward.
THE PATTERN
The heart’s concealed counsel exceeds outward reading, yet its depths are searched and brought to light.
But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.I, the LORD, search the heart and test the kidneys, to give each one according to his way, according to the fruit of his deeds.Therefore, judge nothing before its season, until the Lord comes, who will light up the hidden things of darkness, and will make visible the plans of the hearts. And then the praise will come to each one from God.THE THREAD
Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep waters, but a man of understanding draws it up.The word translated “deep” in Psalm 64:6 shares its root with “deep water” here. Proverbs pictures counsel below the surface as something that can be drawn out, giving a concrete image for the inward depth Psalm 64:6 names.
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