What Does Psalm 94:16 Mean?
Who will rise up for me against the ones who do evil? Who will stand up for me against the workers of crookedness?
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
Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?THE KEY
The verse binds standing for someone to taking a stand against the harm they face.
THE MEANING
Whenever wrongdoing presses against you, this verse gives voice to the question of who will rise on your behalf and stand against it. Its paired verbs hold two movements together: entering the moment, then taking a position that can be held.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that standing with someone can remain neutral toward the harm they face: the verse binds being “for me” to standing “against” those doing evil.
THE ROOT
יִתְיַצֵּב
yityatzev
GROWS FROM
יצב
yatsav
To station oneself or take a position.
English can make “stand up” sound like posture alone, but יִתְיַצֵּב (yityatzev, take a position) carries the sense of stationing oneself. Beside יָקוּם (yaqum, rise up), the verse moves from entering the moment to holding a place of resistance for someone facing harm.
ALSO GROWS
yatsiv: Firm, stable.
יָצִיב
This branch shows firmness as a quality of a stance: the one who stands takes a position that can hold.
hityatzev: Take one’s stand; position oneself.
הִתְיַצֵּב
This is the verb form used in the verse, making standing an act of placing oneself in relation to the harm.
יָקוּם
yaqum
GROWS FROM
קום
qûm
To rise, stand, or be established.
“rise up” in this verse is yaqum. The rising here is not simply getting upright; the root also carries the sense of establishing something. Paired with “stand up,” it makes the question ask who will enter the moment and take a place against wrongdoing.
ALSO GROWS
maqom: Place; position.
מָקוֹם
This word shares the root קום (qûm, rise or stand), linking rising with a place where one can stand.
heqim: Raise, set up, establish.
הֵקִים
This causative form shows the root extending from rising into bringing something into an established position.
THE PATTERN
Scripture gives resistance to evil a visible form: opposing harm and speaking on behalf of those exposed to it.
Learn to do good. Seek justice, straighten the crushed, judge the fatherless, contend for the widow.Open your mouth for the mute, in the judgment of all who pass away.Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.THE THREAD
And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, take your stand, and see the deliverance of the LORD, which he will do for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again for the ages.The phrase “stand still” uses יָצַב (yatsav, to station oneself), the same root as “stand up” here. The echo makes standing more than posture: it is taking a position in the face of danger, the very position Psalm 94:16 asks who will hold for another.
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