What Does Psalm 7:13 Mean?
He readies for himself the vessels of death, and his arrows he makes against the burning ones.
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
He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.THE KEY
The word translated “persecutors” also means “burning ones”: pursuit carries the heat of fire, and the arrows of death are aimed at those who carry it.
THE MEANING
The reader encounters a prepared threat of death aimed against those who pursue. The verse holds the violence plainly and places the pursuer under answering judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that violent pursuit can continue without consequence meets a direct contradiction: the persecutors face prepared instruments of death.
THE ROOT
דֹּלְקִים
dōləqîm
GROWS FROM
דלק
d-l-q
To burn or kindle; also to pursue hotly or persecute.
“burning ones” in this verse is dōləqîm. The Hebrew form behind “persecutors” belongs to a root that holds burning and pursuit together. Proverbs 26:23 uses the same form for “burning” lips, so the pursuit here carries the heat and consuming force of fire.
ALSO GROWS
dālaq: Burn, kindle
דָּלַק
This basic sense supplies the heat carried by the word translated “persecutors.”
yidlōq: Pursue, persecute (Psalm 10:2)
יִדְלֹק
The same root names pursuit directly, showing that burning and persecution share a linguistic seed.
dōləqîm: Burning (Proverbs 26:23, of lips)
דֹּלְקִים
This same form describes burning lips, making the root’s heat visible beyond its sense of pursuit.
THE PATTERN
Violent pursuit is brought under judgment that answers the pursuer’s deeds.
According to their deeds, so he will repay; heat to those who press him, repayment to his enemies; to the coastlands he will make recompense whole.Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.THE THREAD
The wicked, in his swelling, burns after the bowed ones; let them be seized in the schemes they have planned.Psalm 10:2 uses the same דלק root in the verb the KJV renders “doth persecute.” The shared root joins pursuit with burning, sharpening Psalm 7’s image of the pursuer facing a prepared answer.
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