What Does Psalm 55:12 Mean in the King James?
For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
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 same Hebrew phrase that says this hater “magnify himself against me” elsewhere describes a familiar friend raising his heel against you.
THE MEANING
Open hostility leaves its source visible: you can carry it or step away. When contempt comes from someone trusted, it strikes where you expected shelter; the verse names that difference without calling it weakness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a wound should be equally bearable whoever delivers it. The verse says that a trusted person’s contempt can leave you with nowhere to hide without making you weak.
THE ROOT
הִגְדִּיל
higdil
GROWS FROM
גדל
g-d-l
to grow or become great
“magnify himself” in this verse is higdil. The Hebrew phrase הִגְדִּיל עָלַי (higdil alai, “made great against me”) appears again in Psalm 41:9. There the KJV renders it “hath lifted up his heel against me,” so the language connects this hostile self-enlargement with the image of a trusted friend turning against you.
ALSO GROWS
gadol: great
גָּדוֹל
The hater makes himself great against the speaker; the root makes that posture explicit.
migdal: tower
מִגְדָּל
A tower rises above what surrounds it, echoing the image of someone raising himself over the speaker.
THE PATTERN
Betrayal cuts through the shelter of familiarity when someone close turns against you.
Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.THE THREAD
Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.Both verses use הִגְדִּיל עָלַי (higdil alai, “made great against me”); Psalm 41:9 adds the heel as its object. The shared phrase binds the hater’s self-magnifying posture to the familiar friend’s betrayal.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us