What Does Psalm 38:19 Mean in the King James?

But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

Psalm 38:19 · 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 separates the force and size of opposition from the truth of its cause.

THE MEANING

Your opposition may be active, forceful, and multiplying while its hatred is still grounded in falsehood. Its energy and numbers describe the pressure around you; they do not turn falsehood into truth.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that widespread, forceful opposition proves the accusation against you must be true.

THE ROOT

שֶׁקֶר

sheqer

GROWS FROM

שקר

sh-q-r

Falsehood; acting falsely or deceitfully.

The KJV’s “wrongfully” carries the sharper image of sheqer: falsehood or deception. The same root appears in “false witness” in Psalm 27:12, showing how hostility can speak through a claim that is itself false.

ALSO GROWS

ʿēd sheqer: False witness.

עֵד שֶׁקֶר

Psalm 27:12 uses this phrase for testimony formed from falsehood, giving the verse’s wrongful hatred a public voice.

shāqar: To lie or deal falsely.

שָׁקַר

This verbal branch shows falsehood as something enacted, illuminating how hostility can be expressed through deceptive claims.

עָצְמוּ

ʿāṣəmû

GROWS FROM

עצם

ʿ-ṣ-m

To become strong or mighty; in related forms, to become numerous.

This root can describe growing mighty as well as becoming numerous, placing “strong” beside “multiplied” in a shared field of expanding force. Their number registers the pressure around you, while the verse keeps their false hatred separate from truth.

ALSO GROWS

ʿāṣûm: Mighty; numerous.

עָצוּם

This related form holds strength and abundance together, adding weight to the verse’s picture of opposition.

ʿeṣem: Bone; bodily substance.

עֶצֶם

This concrete branch evokes solidity, giving “strong” a sense of substantial force.

THE PATTERN

A growing crowd of opponents does not make its accusation true.

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

Psalm 27:12 · KJVFalse witnesses rise against the speaker, showing how hostility can take the form of untrue testimony.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Matthew 5:11 · KJVReviling and persecution can come with false speech, so the force of opposition does not establish the truth of its claims.

Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.

Psalm 35:19 · KJVThe speaker names hatred without cause, echoing opposition whose intensity gives it no justification.

THE THREAD

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

Psalm 27:12 · KJV

The word rendered “wrongfully” here is ⁨שֶׁקֶר⁩ (sheqer, falsehood), the same root in Psalm 27:12’s “false witnesses.” That shared root links multiplied hatred with testimony made from falsehood: the accusation can gather force without becoming true.

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