What Does Psalm 35:16 Mean in the King James?
With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.
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 ridicule into a physical image: the mocking mouth becomes teeth grinding against its target.
THE MEANING
When you become the target of a crowd’s contempt, this verse names the shift from mockery to menace: the mouth that derides becomes teeth that grind against you. It gives that hostility a bodily image, rather than treating it as harmless talk.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that mockery is harmless because it is only speech; here, the mocking mouth is already pictured as a weapon.
THE ROOT
שִׁנֵּימוֹ
shinnēmô
GROWS FROM
שׁנן
To sharpen or whet.
The word for teeth is linked to sharpening, so the image carries more than open mouths in contempt: it suggests a sharpened edge turned toward you. The same root describes words being diligently taught, joining the mouth’s capacity to injure with its capacity to shape.
ALSO GROWS
shen: Tooth.
שֵׁן
The tooth itself carries the root’s image of sharpness, giving the gnashed teeth their cutting force.
shinnantam: Teach diligently; literally, sharpen them (Deuteronomy 6:7).
וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם
The same sharpened quality can shape words passed on, while here it appears as a threat.
לַעֲגֵי
laʿagei
GROWS FROM
לעג
To mock or deride; the word family also describes stammering or unclear speech.
“mockers” in this verse is laʿagei. The root keeps attention on speech: these are people whose words make another person an object of scorn. Its range also reaches speech heard as broken or unclear, linking the mocker’s voice with humiliation rather than simple disagreement.
ALSO GROWS
laʿag: To mock or deride.
לָעַג
This is the action named directly in the verse: speech used to make its target small.
laʿagei safah: Stammering lips (Isaiah 28:11).
לַעֲגֵי שָׂפָה
The related phrase keeps the root’s attention on speech and how it can mark or unsettle the hearer.
THE PATTERN
A crowd’s contempt can turn another person’s suffering into a public spectacle.
They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,THE THREAD
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.The word translated “teach them diligently” comes from shanan, “to sharpen,” the same root associated with shen, “tooth.” Here sharpness forms words carried through daily life; in Psalm 35:16, that image turns toward hostile teeth.
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