What Does Psalm 78:31 Mean?
The burning of God's anger rose against them, and struck down the fat ones among them, and brought the chosen men of Israel to their knees.
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
The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.THE KEY
The Hebrew for wrath also means nostril, making divine anger a flare of heat that reaches even the strongest and chosen.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you now in its full severity: God’s anger comes upon a people, killing their most robust and bringing Israel’s chosen men down. Its words leave no shelter in fullness, strength, or selection.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being strong, well supplied, or chosen guarantees exemption from divine judgment.
THE ROOT
אַף
af
GROWS FROM
אנף
anaph
Flare with anger; anger pictured in the nostrils.
“burning of God's anger” in this verse is af. English wrath can sound like an abstract quality, while אַף also means nostril and carries the image of anger flaring in the face. Here that anger comes upon the people with lethal force.
ALSO GROWS
af: Nostril; anger or wrath.
אָף
The same word holds the bodily image and the emotion together, giving the verse’s wrath a heat you can almost see.
anaph: To be angry; to flare with anger.
אָנַף
This verbal form shows anger as an active rising, illuminating the force of the wrath in the verse.
מִשְׁמַנֵּיהֶם
mishmannehem
GROWS FROM
שמן
shaman
Be fat, rich, or full; carry oil or abundance.
“fat ones” in this verse is mishmannehem. The word points to those at the fullest, most robust end of the group. Its root also gives Hebrew its word for oil, so the verse’s stark violence falls on those marked by fullness, not only on the vulnerable.
ALSO GROWS
shemen: Oil; richness or fatness.
שֶׁמֶן
The oil branch keeps the sense of fullness and richness inside the verse’s description of those slain.
mishmannim: Rich or choice food; fat portions.
מִשְׁמַנִּים
This branch shows how the root can describe abundance, deepening the force of the verse’s reference to the most robust.
בְּחוּרֵי
bechurei
GROWS FROM
בחר
bachar
Choose, select, or distinguish.
“chosen men” in this verse is bechurei. The word describes selected men, yet their distinction does not keep them standing. Alongside the robust, they are brought down: fullness and chosen rank both meet the same violence.
ALSO GROWS
bachar: Choose or select.
בָּחַר
The verb reveals the selection contained in the phrase chosen men.
mivchar: Choice; the best or selected portion.
מִבְחָר
This related form carries the sense of what is picked as best, echoing the verse’s stark naming of Israel’s chosen men.
THE PATTERN
When God’s judgment comes, bodily strength and chosen rank do not secure anyone from being brought low.
For God is the judge. This one he brings low, and this one he lifts.For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one who swells and is high, and upon every one who is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.THE THREAD
Then he speaks to them in the burning of his anger, and startles them with his scorching heat.Both verses use אַף (af), which holds anger together with the nostril and its flare. That shared root lets the wrath here register as rising, bodily heat rather than a distant abstraction.
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