What Does Psalm 70:3 Mean?
Let them turn back on the heels of their shame, those who say, Aha, aha.
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
Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha.THE KEY
The Hebrew says the mockers are made to turn back, reversing the direction of their taunt until their own shame meets them.
THE MEANING
When someone says “Aha” over your shame, the verse names the sting without disguising it. It gives the mockers’ taunt a reversed direction: their delight in your shame returns to them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that someone else’s mockery gets the final word over you.
THE ROOT
יָשׁוּבוּ
yāšûvû
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
שׁוּב (shuv) means to turn or return.
The verb in the verse comes from שׁוּב, the root of turning back or returning. The mockers’ movement is reversed: the shame they celebrate becomes the place they themselves turn back toward.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return, turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun keeps the root’s change of direction visible: return means turning back toward a different course.
meshuvah: turning away, backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch uses the same root for a turn away, showing how שׁוּב can name a change of direction in either course.
THE PATTERN
The direction of contempt can be reversed, returning the shame or harm toward its source.
Let them be shamed and brought low, those who seek my living soul; let them turn back and be exposed, those who plan my harm.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
Let all my enemies be put to shame and shaken exceedingly; let them turn back and be put to shame in a blink.Psalm 6 uses the same Hebrew root שׁוּב (shuv), “to turn back” or “return,” in the phrase “let them return.” It joins that turning with shame, making explicit the reversal Psalm 70 asks for.
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