What Does Psalm 109:29 Mean in the King James?
Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.
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
The verse turns shame into a garment, making the adversaries’ own confusion an outer covering.
THE MEANING
The verse voices the wish that those opposing you wear disgrace and be wrapped in their own confusion. The doubled clothing image makes shame public, like a mantle that covers them.
THE ROOT
יִלְבְּשׁוּ
yilbeshū
GROWS FROM
לבש
To put on, wear.
“clothed” in this verse is yilbeshū. The verse uses the root for wearing to make shame something put on, seen from outside, and carried as a covering. The following clothing image adds another layer: confusion is not only felt but made into a mantle.
ALSO GROWS
levush: Garment, clothing.
לְבוּשׁ
This noun from the same root makes the verse’s image of shame as something worn concrete.
hilbish: To clothe someone, dress.
הִלְבִּישׁ
This form shows the root can describe clothing placed on another, as the verse pictures shame covering its adversaries.
כְּלִמָּה
kelimmah
GROWS FROM
כלם
To shame, humiliate, or wound with disgrace.
This root forms both the act of humiliating someone and the state of being humiliated. It connects the shame in the verse to exposed disgrace, not only a private feeling.
ALSO GROWS
hikhlim: To shame, humiliate.
הִכְלִים
This verb makes explicit the humiliating force carried by the noun in the verse.
nikhlam: Ashamed, humiliated.
נִכְלָם
This form names the state of the people whom the verse pictures wearing disgrace.
שׂוֹטְנַי
sotnay
GROWS FROM
שטן
To oppose or act as an adversary.
The Hebrew word for “my adversaries” shares its root with the singular word for an adversary. The verse names these people by their opposing role, then gives that opposition a visible covering in shame.
ALSO GROWS
satan: Adversary, opponent.
שָׂטָן
This singular noun shares the root of “my adversaries” in the verse.
yistənuni: They oppose me.
יִשְׂטְנוּנִי
This verb form, in Psalm 38:21, shows the same root describing the act of opposing.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses clothing to make shame visible or to cover it.
They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought.I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.THE THREAD
Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me.Both verses use the Hebrew root לבש (lavash, “to wear or clothe”) for being clothed with shame. Psalm 109:29 extends the image by adding a second covering of the adversaries’ own confusion.
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