What Does Psalm 35:19 Mean in the King James?
Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.
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 calls the enemies’ joy false and their hatred groundless: their gesture cannot turn baseless hostility into truth.
THE MEANING
This verse names the sting of being treated with contempt by people whose hostility has no just cause. Their wink makes the contempt visible, but it does not make their judgment true or their hatred deserved.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that if people publicly delight in your humiliation, they must have a valid reason.
THE ROOT
שֶׁקֶר
sheqer
GROWS FROM
שקר
sh-q-r
To lie, be false, or deal deceitfully.
The Hebrew word beneath “wrongfully” is sheqer, “falsehood.” The verse exposes the enemies’ rejoicing as false at its source; their knowing wink does not make it true.
ALSO GROWS
sheqer: Falsehood, a lie.
שֶׁקֶר
This is the word used in the verse, naming the character of the enemies’ rejoicing.
shāqar: To lie or deal falsely.
שָׁקַר
The verb shows the same root at work as an act of deception, not merely a mistake.
חִנָּם
ḥinnām
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
To show favor or act graciously; this word-family also carries the sense of what is given freely.
“without a cause” in this verse is ḥinnām. Ḥinnām can mean both “without cause” and “without charge.” The verse presents the hatred as gratuitous: it has no cause that makes it deserved.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor, graciousness.
חֵן
This related word names favor; the same word-family helps show how ḥinnām can carry a sense of something given freely.
ḥinnām: Freely, for nothing, without cause.
חִנָּם
Here it removes any justifying cause from the enemies’ hatred.
THE PATTERN
Hostility can be loud and visible while remaining false and without cause.
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.THE THREAD
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.Psalm 69:4 repeats the same Hebrew words: ḥinnām, “without cause,” and sheqer, “falsely.” Their pairing makes plain what Psalm 35:19 holds together: the hostility is not evidence of guilt, and its appearance of justification is false.
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