What Does Psalm 38:4 Mean in the King James?
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
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 Hebrew images make the burden overrun its bearer: the wrongs cross above the head, and their root names weight itself.
THE MEANING
The wrongs you carry rise above your head and weigh more than you can bear alone. The verse names that limit plainly: the burden is too heavy for you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that if the burden is yours, you must be able to carry it; the speaker names the wrongs as his own and still admits they exceed his strength.
THE ROOT
כָּבֵד
kaved
GROWS FROM
כבד
כָּבֵד (kaved), to be heavy or weighty; by extension, to be honored.
“heavy” in this verse is kaved. The root holds literal weight and honor together: כָּבוֹד (kavod) means weight, honor, or glory, and כִּבֵּד (kibbed) means to treat as weighty. Here the burden has the force of something whose weight dominates the speaker.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: Weight, honor, or glory.
כָּבוֹד
The same root links physical weight with what is treated as significant; the burden presses with weight the speaker cannot dismiss.
kibbed: He honored or treated as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
This branch turns weight into the act of assigning worth, showing how the root holds physical and figurative weight together.
עָבְרוּ
avru
GROWS FROM
עבר
עָבַר (avar), to pass over, cross, or move beyond.
“gone over” in this verse is avru. The verb depicts movement across a boundary: the wrongs have passed over the head instead of remaining below it. The root’s words for “beyond” and “crossing” make the image one of overflow, not just a list of wrongs.
ALSO GROWS
ever: The other side, across, or beyond.
עֵבֶר
This branch carries the same sense of crossing beyond, sharpening the image of what has gone over the speaker’s head.
ma’avar: A crossing or passage.
מַעֲבָר
The same root names a crossing; the verse’s wrongs move across the boundary of what the speaker can contain.
THE PATTERN
When a burden exceeds one person’s capacity, scripture describes it as released or carried in common.
Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.THE THREAD
Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.Exodus uses the same כבד (kaved, heavy or weighty) root for what one person cannot carry alone. Here that root describes the speaker’s own iniquities, making the limit in “too heavy for me” concrete.
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