What Does Psalm 64:7 Mean?
But God shoots an arrow at them; suddenly they are struck.
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
But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.THE KEY
The arrows they send as bitter words become the shape of the sudden blow that meets them.
THE MEANING
God’s response is a real strike: the verse says he shoots, and the attackers are suddenly wounded. Beside the earlier image of their arrows as bitter words, the blow exposes the violence hidden inside their speech and turns the image back upon them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a concealed attack leaves its author untouched dissolves here: violence aimed outward can return as a wound.
THE ROOT
וַיֹּרֵם
vayyorem
GROWS FROM
י־ר־ה
To throw, cast, or shoot; related forms also carry the sense of directing or teaching.
“shoots” in this verse is vayyorem. The verb for shooting shares its root with תּוֹרָה (torah), meaning instruction: both involve directing something along a course. Here that shared sense of aim makes the arrow more than a weapon image, it is a force sent toward its target.
ALSO GROWS
torah: Instruction or teaching.
תּוֹרָה
Instruction directs a person along a course, linking the root’s sense of aim to something sent to guide rather than wound.
moreh: One who teaches or directs.
מוֹרֶה
The teacher’s word directs the hearer; this verse uses the same root for an arrow directed at a target.
מַכּוֹתָם
makkotam
GROWS FROM
נ־כ־ה
To strike or smite.
“are struck” in this verse is makkotam. The word rendered “wounded” is built from מַכָּה (makkah), a blow or wound, from the root נכה (nakah), to strike. The wording presents the injury as blows suddenly arriving, making the force of the reversal concrete.
ALSO GROWS
makkah: A strike and its resulting injury; in other contexts, a plague.
מַכָּה
The verse’s “wounds” belong to the same word family as a blow, keeping the image physical and forceful.
nakah: To hit or strike.
נָכָה
This verbal root names the force behind the wound: the attackers are not merely affected, they are struck.
THE PATTERN
Violence plotted and sent outward can return upon its author with sudden force.
His toil turns back upon his head, and his violence comes down upon his skull.Whoever digs a pit falls into it; whoever rolls a stone, it turns back upon him.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even the bitter word.Verse 3 reveals that the attackers’ arrows are bitter words. Verse 7 turns the same arrow image around: the ones who aimed their words now face an arrow shot by God, and the hidden violence becomes a sudden wound.
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