What Does Psalm 22:6 Mean?
But I am a worm and not a man; the scorn of humankind, despised by the people.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “worm” also names scarlet material, carrying a vivid color inside this line of abasement.
THE MEANING
The first-person voice gives you words for the moment contempt makes you feel less than human: it names itself as publicly reproached and despised. The verse does not hide the injury or turn humiliation into a virtue.
THE ROOT
תּוֹלַעַת
tola'at
GROWS FROM
תלע
t-l-ʿ
Worm; the noun also names scarlet material in the biblical phrase תּוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי.
“worm” in this verse is tola'at. The comparison remains severe: the speaker names himself as the creature people despise. Yet the same Hebrew noun also names scarlet material, so the word carries color and substance beyond contempt.
ALSO GROWS
tola'im: Worms
תּוֹלָעִים
Job 25:6 uses this plural in another image of human lowliness.
tola'at shani: Scarlet material
תּוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי
The phrase uses the same noun for worm in a word for scarlet, giving the verse’s image a vivid material echo.
אָדָם
adam
GROWS FROM
אדם
ʾ-d-m
Human being; this word family also includes ground or soil and red or ruddy.
“humankind” in this verse is adam. The opening says “no man” with אִישׁ (ish), while “men” later translates אָדָם (adam): English smooths over the shift between two Hebrew words. Adam’s kinship with אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground) keeps earth-born humanity audible within this line of rejection.
ALSO GROWS
adamah: Ground, soil
אֲדָמָה
The word’s kinship with adamah holds the ground-linked sense of human identity near the verse’s denial of human standing.
adom: Red, ruddy
אָדֹם
This branch of the word family echoes the vivid color carried by the worm word’s scarlet usage.
חֶרְפָּה
cherpah
GROWS FROM
חרף
ḥ-r-p
To reproach, taunt, or expose to scorn.
“scorn” in this verse is cherpah. The Hebrew family includes both the noun for reproach and the act of taunting. The verse names a public injury done to the speaker, not an inherent nature.
ALSO GROWS
charaf: To taunt or reproach
חָרַף
The verb makes the reproach an action directed at someone, not just a label.
cherpah: Reproach, scorn
חֶרְפָּה
Psalm 69:20 uses the same noun for reproach that breaks the heart, showing the weight this injury can carry.
THE PATTERN
Scripture gives humiliation an unvarnished voice, naming people as worms, despised, or derided.
How much less a frail one, who is a maggot? And the son of man, who is a worm?He is despised and left off by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And as one hiding the face, we hid our faces from him. He was despised, and we did not reckon him.And the people stood watching. And the rulers with them also turned up their noses at him, saying, He delivered others; let him deliver himself, if he is the Anointed One, the chosen of God.THE THREAD
Do not fear, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you, says the LORD, and the redeemer, the Set-Apart One of Israel.Isaiah repeats the same word תּוֹלַעַת (tola’at, worm), directly addressing “worm Jacob.” The echo keeps the lowly image in the open while placing words of help alongside it.
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