Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Psalms 21:12 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 12. 12Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 21:12: The reason or consequence in “Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt…” supports the surrounding claim in “Thanksgiving for the king's granted victory.”
Read It With
- Psalms 21:1–13
Read Psalms 21:12 with 21:1–13. Read alone, “Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make…” could lose the communal voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 21:1–13, the communal voice carries the movement “Thanksgiving for the king's granted victory” as part of “Thanksgiving for the king's granted victory.” Its royal-thanksgiving form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 21:1–13 opens Psalm 21 with “The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!” and establishes the communal voice and “Thanksgiving for the king's granted victory” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Within that relationship, Psalm 21:12 supplies a reason or consequence through “Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine…” and must be read with the claim it supports.
What Remains True
Book I gives Psalm 21:12 a larger home, while “Thanksgiving for the king's granted victory” supplies its immediate one. Psalm 21:12 supplies a reason or consequence through “Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine…” and must be read with the claim it supports. Therefore, Human rule is answerable to the LORD and is measured by justice, especially protection of poor and vulnerable people, rather than by power or sacred slogans. The local movement is “Thanksgiving for the king's granted victory.” The unit's reviewed limit is: Royal victory language must be read with ancient kingship and the Psalter's justice demands, not as permission to celebrate civilian suffering.
How It Can Shape Life
- Start with the line's work inside “Thanksgiving for the king's granted victory”—Psalm 21:12 supplies a reason or consequence through “Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine…” and must be read with the claim it supports. Then let “Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make…” question concentrated power: examine whether actual policies protect poor people and restrain violence rather than baptizing authority.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 21:1–13 — Thanksgiving for the king's granted victorySources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 21:1–13, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 21:1–13
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 21:1–13.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 21 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 21:1–13
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗