What Does Psalm 35:13 Mean in the King James?
But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.
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
Hebrew prayer belongs to a root family that also speaks of intercession, and here that plea circles back to rest in the speaker’s own chest.
THE MEANING
When someone is sick, your care can take bodily form: you wear grief, humble your living self through fasting, and pray. That prayer returns to your own bosom; the other person’s suffering is carried within your inward life.
THE ROOT
תְּפִלָּתִי
tefillati
GROWS FROM
פלל
palal
To intervene or arbitrate; the related prayer verb means to pray or intercede.
The Hebrew word for prayer belongs to a family that also includes forms for judging and interceding. The plea is more than private wishing: it enters between another’s suffering and the speaker’s own inward life.
ALSO GROWS
hitpallel: to pray, intercede
הִתְפַּלֵּל
This related verb presents prayer as an enacted appeal, matching the speaker’s active care.
pelilim: judges, arbiters
פְּלִילִים
This related noun gives the word family a sense of weighing or intervening, beyond private thought.
נַפְשִׁי
nafshi
GROWS FROM
נפש
The living self: a person, being, or life.
The word humbled by fasting is the living self, not an abstract soul detached from the body. The verse places the speaker’s whole vulnerable life inside the act of care.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: living being, self, life
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the word humbled by fasting, locating the act in the whole living person.
naphash: to rest, be refreshed
נָפַשׁ
This related verb keeps the root in the register of a life that can be depleted and restored.
וְעִנֵּיתִי
ve’inniti
GROWS FROM
ענה
To afflict or bring low; in this form, to humble oneself.
The verb translated “humbled” also carries the sense of afflicting or bringing low. Fasting names a lowering of the living self, not merely a change in attitude.
ALSO GROWS
innah: to afflict, humble
עִנָּה
This is the verb used here; the speaker’s humbling has the weight of an embodied act.
ʿoni: affliction, oppression
עֳנִי
This related noun names the condition of being brought low and clarifies the force of “humbled.”
THE PATTERN
Compassion crosses the boundary between another’s distress and the self, becoming shared grief, prayer, or action.
Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.THE THREAD
For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.Both verses use the Hebrew prayer word תְּפִלָּה (tefillah, prayer), from פלל. Psalm 35 shows the prayer returning to the speaker’s bosom; Psalm 109 makes that inward devotion stark: “I give myself unto prayer.”
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