What Does Psalm 73:15 Mean?
If I say, I will recount it so, behold, I betray the generation of your children.
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
If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.THE KEY
A spoken conclusion can become betrayal when a whole generation inherits it.
THE MEANING
Your words can carry a conclusion farther than your present pain can see. This verse names the risk that a spoken verdict can betray the people who receive it, even when it feels true to your immediate experience.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that speaking your present judgment affects only you; this verse shows that words can betray the generation that receives them.
THE ROOT
בָּגַדְתִּי
bagadti
GROWS FROM
בגד
bagad
To act treacherously, betray, or deal unfaithfully.
“betray” in this verse is bagadti. Beneath “offend” is the sharper sense of betraying or acting unfaithfully toward someone. The verse frames speech as a matter of fidelity to the generation that will receive it.
ALSO GROWS
boged: One who acts treacherously; a betrayer.
בּוֹגֵד
It makes clear that the speaker fears more than causing offense: he fears becoming unfaithful to those who hear him.
begidah: Treachery or unfaithfulness.
בְּגִידָה
This names the relational breach that the speaker sees as a possible consequence of his words.
אֲסַפְּרָה
asapperah
GROWS FROM
ספר
s-p-r
To count, recount, or relate.
“recount” in this verse is asapperah. The verb rendered “speak” carries the sense of recounting: the speaker is shaping events into a telling. That account bears weight beyond the speaker because the children may receive it as their inherited account of what is true.
ALSO GROWS
sepher: A book or scroll; a written account.
סֵפֶר
It shows how recounting can take lasting form, becoming an account others receive and carry.
mispar: A number or count.
מִסְפָּר
The same root connects telling with counting or setting things in order, underscoring that speech frames how events are understood.
THE PATTERN
Words can become an inheritance: speech either sustains those who receive it or betrays them.
We will not hide them from their children, recounting to the generation that follows the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonders that he has done.Death and life are in the hand of the tongue, and those who love it eat its fruit.Let no rotten word come out of your mouth, but whatever is good for building up where there is need, that it may give favor to those who hear.THE THREAD
But they turned back and betrayed, like their fathers; they swerved like a slack bow.“Dealt unfaithfully” comes from the same בגד (bagad) root as “offend” here, giving that word the sharper sense of betrayal. Psalm 78 shows unfaithfulness repeating from fathers to children; Psalm 73:15 sees the danger that words could carry betrayal forward.
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