What Does Psalm 22:6 Mean in the King James?
But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
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 Hebrew word for “worm” also names scarlet material, carrying a vivid color inside this line of abasement.
THE MEANING
The first-person voice gives you words for the moment contempt makes you feel less than human: it names itself as publicly reproached and despised. The verse does not hide the injury or turn humiliation into a virtue.
THE ROOT
תּוֹלַעַת
tola'at
GROWS FROM
תלע
t-l-ʿ
Worm; the noun also names scarlet material in the biblical phrase תּוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי.
“worm” in this verse is tola'at. The comparison remains severe: the speaker names himself as the creature people despise. Yet the same Hebrew noun also names scarlet material, so the word carries color and substance beyond contempt.
ALSO GROWS
tola'im: Worms
תּוֹלָעִים
Job 25:6 uses this plural in another image of human lowliness.
tola'at shani: Scarlet material
תּוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי
The phrase uses the same noun for worm in a word for scarlet, giving the verse’s image a vivid material echo.
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
אדם
ʾ-d-m
Human being; this word family also includes ground or soil and red or ruddy.
The opening says “no man” with אִישׁ (ish), while “men” later translates אָדָם (adam): English smooths over the shift between two Hebrew words. Adam’s kinship with אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground) keeps earth-born humanity audible within this line of rejection.
ALSO GROWS
adamah: Ground, soil
אֲדָמָה
The word’s kinship with adamah holds the ground-linked sense of human identity near the verse’s denial of human standing.
adom: Red, ruddy
אָדֹם
This branch of the word family echoes the vivid color carried by the worm word’s scarlet usage.
חֶרְפָּה
cherpah
GROWS FROM
חרף
ḥ-r-p
To reproach, taunt, or expose to scorn.
The Hebrew family includes both the noun for reproach and the act of taunting. The verse names a public injury done to the speaker, not an inherent nature.
ALSO GROWS
charaf: To taunt or reproach
חָרַף
The verb makes the reproach an action directed at someone, not just a label.
cherpah: Reproach, scorn
חֶרְפָּה
Psalm 69:20 uses the same noun for reproach that breaks the heart, showing the weight this injury can carry.
THE PATTERN
Scripture gives humiliation an unvarnished voice, naming people as worms, despised, or derided.
How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.THE THREAD
Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.Isaiah repeats the same word תּוֹלַעַת (tola’at, worm), directly addressing “worm Jacob.” The echo keeps the lowly image in the open while placing words of help alongside it.
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