What Does Psalm 69:20 Mean in the King James?
Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
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 for “take pity” carries the motion of lamenting with another, so the verse names a second wound: grief with no fellow mourner.
THE MEANING
When reproach reaches you, it can break your heart and leave you sick with grief. Then comes another pain: searching for someone to grieve with you or comfort you, and finding no one. The verse names the wound and the isolation together.
THE ROOT
שָׁבְרָה
shavrah
GROWS FROM
שבר
sh-b-r
Break, shatter, fracture.
“broken” in this verse is shavrah. Here reproach is the breaker and the heart is what it fractures; Hebrew keeps the wound concrete. Psalm 34:18 repeats the same root pair: שבר (shavar, break) and לב (lev, heart).
ALSO GROWS
shever: A break, fracture, or ruin.
שֶׁבֶר
The noun keeps the image of a break that leaves damage behind, not a passing heaviness.
shavur: Broken or shattered.
שָׁבוּר
This related form describes the heart’s condition as an actual fracture.
לָנוּד
lanud
GROWS FROM
נוד
n-w-d
Move to and fro or wander; in this verse, lament or show sympathy with another’s grief.
“take pity” in this verse is lanud. The sought-for pity carries a sense of movement: someone is moved to share the sufferer’s lament. Its absence means there is no fellow mourner before the speaker even searches for a comforter.
ALSO GROWS
Nod: Wandering or movement; the name of the land associated with wandering in Genesis 4:16.
נוֹד
It preserves the root’s movement sense, which gives the appeal for pity more texture than a feeling of sympathy alone.
menod rosh: A shaking or nodding of the head, as in Psalm 44:14.
מְנוֹד רֹאשׁ
The root can make a response visible through a gesture, echoing how the verse pictures sympathy as something expressed.
וָאֱנוּשָׁה
waʾănûšāh
GROWS FROM
אנש
ʾ-n-š
Be weak, sick, or gravely wounded.
“full of heaviness” in this verse is waʾănûšāh. The Hebrew moves from a broken heart to sickness or deep affliction, giving “heaviness” the feel of a wound rather than a passing mood. The word belongs to a root family that also names human frailty.
ALSO GROWS
anush: Desperately sick or incurably wounded.
אֱנוּשׁ
This form carries the severity hidden beneath the English word “heaviness.”
enosh: A mortal human being, a frail person.
אֱנוֹשׁ
The shared root ties the verse’s sickness to the vulnerability of being human.
THE PATTERN
Scripture meets sorrow through nearness: God draws near to the brokenhearted, and people share one another’s grief.
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.THE THREAD
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.Psalm 34:18 repeats the same Hebrew pairing: שבר (shavar, break) and לב (lev, heart). Psalm 69 names the wound and the absence of human comfort; Psalm 34 places nearness beside that same broken heart.
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