What Does Psalm 55:4 Mean in the King James?
My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon 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 word translated “pained” carries the motion of writhing and labor, so this is death-terror felt as travail inside the heart.
THE MEANING
Your heart is writhing within you as the terrors of death fall upon you. The pressure is inward and bodily, while the image of falling gives the fear the weight of something landing on you.
THE ROOT
יָחִיל
yāḥîl
GROWS FROM
חוּל
ḥul
To writhe, whirl, or travail in labor.
The word translated “pained” comes from a root of writhing and travail. Hebrew lets anguish feel like movement in the body, twisting through the heart, rather than a label for a mood.
ALSO GROWS
tāḥîl: Is in labor; writhes in birth pangs.
תָּחִיל
Isaiah uses this form for labor pain, showing that the root describes felt bodily motion rather than a generic mood.
māḥōl: Dance.
מָחוֹל
This related word names another kind of bodily movement; here the root gives that movement an anguished form.
בְּקִרְבִּי
bəqirbî
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
To approach or draw near; also to be inward or near the center.
The phrase rendered “within me” names the inward place, from the same root that forms “draw near.” English gives a location, while Hebrew lets nearness resonate inside that location.
ALSO GROWS
qerev: Inner part; inward place.
קֶרֶב
This noun names the interior where the verse locates the heart’s pain.
qārav: Draw near; approach.
קָרַב
The shared root links inwardness with nearness: the terror is felt close to the speaker’s center.
THE PATTERN
The fear of death can press inward as pain and hold a person in bondage.
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.THE THREAD
Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.The same Hebrew root behind “pained” describes the woman “in pain” as she approaches labor. That link makes the Psalm’s terror sound like travail held inside the body, not a vague mood.
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