What Does Psalm 31:17 Mean?
Let me not be shamed, O LORD, for I call out to you; let the wicked be shamed, and let them go mute in the grave.
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
Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.THE KEY
The same Hebrew shame-word is repeated in opposite directions: the caller asks to escape disgrace while the wicked are asked to meet it in Sheol.
THE MEANING
The reader appeals directly to the LORD and asks not to be disgraced, because the appeal has already been made. The verse places this plea beside a stark request: the wicked are to be shamed and become silent in Sheol. It holds the caller’s feared disgrace and the wicked’s graveward silence together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief that feared disgrace is already a settled verdict is interrupted: the verse brings that outcome before the LORD as a plea, while asking that shame fall on the wicked.
THE ROOT
אֵבוֹשָׁה
evoshah
GROWS FROM
בוש
bosh
To be ashamed, confounded, or disappointed.
“ashamed” in this verse is evoshah. English can make shame sound like an inward emotion; this root also describes being confounded or disappointed. Repeated in the verse, it turns the plea into a request about opposite outcomes: the caller not disgraced, the wicked disgraced.
ALSO GROWS
yevoshu: They be ashamed or confounded.
יֵבֹשׁוּ
This is the same verb root in the second plea, which puts the caller’s requested outcome beside the wicked’s.
hovish: Put to shame; disappoint.
הוֹבִישׁ
This causative form shows the root can describe shame as an outcome someone undergoes, not only a private feeling.
קְרָאתִיךָ
qeratikha
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
To call, summon, or proclaim.
“call out to” in this verse is qeratikha. The verse’s “called upon thee” is a direct address to the LORD. This root also names proclaiming and reading aloud, giving the appeal the shape of a call made toward someone.
ALSO GROWS
qore: One who calls or reads aloud.
קֹרֵא
This form keeps the act of calling concrete: a voice addresses someone.
miqra: A reading, proclamation, or assembly.
מִקְרָא
The call-word can also name a public proclamation, widening prayer from an inward thought to an addressed utterance.
יִדְּמוּ
yiddemu
GROWS FROM
דמם
damam
To be silent, still, or cease.
“mute” in this verse is yiddemu. The root holds silence and stillness together. Beside Sheol, the verse gives the wicked’s silence the stark force of a voice brought to an end.
ALSO GROWS
dom: Be silent; be still.
דֹּם
This imperative form shows the root’s range from silence to stillness.
demamah: Silence; stillness.
דְּמָמָה
This noun carries the quiet sense of the root, while the verse places silence in the grave.
THE PATTERN
Trust directed toward the LORD is paired with freedom from shame, while opposition is pictured as ending in shame.
My God, in you I lean my full weight. Let me not be ashamed, nor let my enemies leap in triumph over me.Let them be shamed and exposed together, those who rejoice at my harm; let them be clothed with shame and disgrace, those who swell against me.For the writing says, Everyone who leans their full weight on him will not be put to shame.THE THREAD
My God, in you I lean my full weight. Let me not be ashamed, nor let my enemies leap in triumph over me.The same Hebrew verb for “be ashamed” appears in both verses: here the speaker names trust before asking not to be disgraced. Psalm 31:17 repeats that verb in both halves, setting the caller’s plea beside the wicked’s requested shame and silence.
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