What Does Psalm 35:1 Mean?
A Psalm of David. Grapple, LORD, with those who grapple with me; fight against those who fight against me.
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
A Psalm of David. Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.THE KEY
The prayer asks God to enter the dispute itself: the same Hebrew root names both the plea for advocacy and the opposition pressing against the speaker.
THE MEANING
When you are opposed, this prayer brings the dispute itself before the LORD: it asks him to take up your case and to fight those who fight you. The language moves from contention to combat, letting the danger remain direct and the request forceful.
THE ROOT
רִיבָה
rîvāh
GROWS FROM
ריב
r-y-b
Contend; bring a dispute or case forward.
“Grapple, LORD, with those who grapple with me” in this verse is rîvāh. English assigns “plead my cause” to the speaker’s request and “strive” to the adversaries, but Hebrew repeats ריב in both. The LORD is asked to enter the very contention raised against the speaker.
ALSO GROWS
rîv: Dispute or controversy.
רִיב
The plea asks the LORD to take up the dispute itself.
merivah: Quarrel or contention.
מְרִיבָה
It shows that the same root can name the conflict surrounding the speaker.
לְחַם
ləḥam
GROWS FROM
לחם
l-ḥ-m
Fight or wage battle.
“fight against those who fight against me” in this verse is ləḥam. The verse shifts from a dispute that can be pleaded to combat, repeating the battle-root for both sides: the LORD is asked to fight those who fight the speaker. The request names conflict directly and does not soften it into a metaphor of inner calm.
ALSO GROWS
milḥāmāh: Battle or war.
מִלְחָמָה
It carries the same root from a single fight into sustained conflict.
lōḥēm: Fighter or warrior.
לֹחֵם
It names the person engaged in the fighting that this verse asks the LORD to oppose.
THE PATTERN
When opposition threatens a person, the contested cause and the response are placed before God as judge and defender.
But thus says the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the terrifying one will slip free. For I will contend with the one who contends with you, and I will deliver your children.Let the LORD therefore be judge, and let him judge between me and you, and let him see, and contend for my cause, and set me right out of your hand.Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.THE THREAD
But thus says the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the terrifying one will slip free. For I will contend with the one who contends with you, and I will deliver your children.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root, ריב (rîv, contend), for God’s action and the adversary’s opposition. The conflict is taken up by God in the very terms used to name it.
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