What Does Psalm 109:25 Mean in the King James?
I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
A head-shake turns reproach from an abstract label into a public gesture of contempt.
THE MEANING
When you are made an object of contempt, the gaze lands and the shaking head turns judgment into a visible gesture. The verse names the wound of being watched as someone else’s reproach.
THE ROOT
חֶרְפָּה
ḥerpâ
GROWS FROM
חרף
ḥ-r-p: to reproach, taunt, or expose to scorn
The noun names the state of being shamed, while its verbal branch names the act that brings the shame. English can make reproach sound like an abstract reputation; this root keeps the human act of taunting inside the word.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāraph: to reproach or taunt
חָרַף
The verb shows reproach as something one person does to another.
məḥārēph: one who reproaches or taunts
מְחָרֵף
This branch names the person carrying out the contempt, not just the condition it creates.
יְנִיעוּן
yenîʿûn they shake
GROWS FROM
נוע
n-w-ʿ: to move, shake, or waver
“shaked” in this verse is yenîʿûn they shake. The verb here describes making the head move. Contempt takes bodily form: the onlookers’ judgment becomes visible in a gesture.
ALSO GROWS
yānûaʿ: he or it will move or waver
יָנוּעַ
The same root can describe movement or wavering; here it describes a deliberate movement of the head.
nāʿû: they moved or wavered
נָעוּ
This form shows the root’s basic sense of motion, which the verse makes into a public sign of scorn.
THE PATTERN
Public contempt takes shape in a gesture that makes the targeted person a spectacle.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,THE THREAD
All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,Psalm 22:7 uses the same Hebrew root נוע (n-w-ʿ, move or shake) for the head-shaking. In both verses, reproach becomes legible as a gesture before the taunt is fully spoken.
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