What Does Psalm 22:7 Mean in the King James?

All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

Psalm 22:7 · KJV

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 contempt into a public performance of sight, lips, shaking heads, and spoken words.

THE MEANING

When you are watched and ridiculed, this verse names the humiliation in its physical details: eyes fixed on you, lips shaped against you, heads shaking, words spoken aloud. It lets the contempt remain public and bodily, rather than reducing it to an inward feeling.

THE ROOT

יַלְעִגוּ לִי

yalʿîgû lî

GROWS FROM

ל־ע־ג

L-ʿ-G

To mock or deride

“laugh me to scorn” in this verse is yalʿîgû lî. A form of this root also appears in Isaiah 28:11 in a phrase rendered “stammering lips,” linking mockery with speech heard as strange or broken. Here, contempt moves from seeing to the lips and spoken words, while the shaking head adds a physical gesture.

ALSO GROWS

lāʿag: To mock or deride

לָעַג

This is the verbal root behind the mockery directed at the speaker in this verse.

laʿag: Mockery or derision

לַעַג

The related noun shows how the action of mocking can become a condition surrounding the one being ridiculed.

laʿăgê śāfāh: Mocking or strange speech of the lips; rendered “stammering lips” in Isaiah 28:11

לַעֲגֵי שָׂפָה

This same root beside “lips” echoes the verse’s movement from ridicule to a mouth and words.

THE PATTERN

When people are made visible in suffering, contempt can turn their bodies and words into a public spectacle.

I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.

Psalm 109:25 · KJVThe gaze and shaking heads again make public contempt visible through a gesture.

This is the word which the LORD hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.

Isaiah 37:22 · KJVScorn and the shaking head combine spoken contempt with a bodily sign.

And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,

Matthew 27:39 · KJVThe passersby make ridicule a public act through words and a moving head.

THE THREAD

For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

Isaiah 28:11 · KJV

Isaiah uses ⁨לַעֲגֵי שָׂפָה⁩ (laʿăgê śāfāh, mocking or strange speech of the lips), from the same root as “laugh me to scorn” here, though the KJV renders the forms differently. The shared root links ridicule with speech and the mouth that carries it.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us