What Does Psalm 35:15 Mean?
But in my limping they rejoice and gather together; the strikers gather against me, and I do not know it. They tear at me and do not hush.
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 in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not:THE KEY
The “adversity” is a limp: as the speaker falters, people described through the language of being struck gather and keep tearing at him.
THE MEANING
You can be faltering while others celebrate and close ranks against you. The injury may reach you before you know who is doing it, and the tearing continues without pause. This verse gives direct words to the shock of being wounded without seeing the gathering.
THE ROOT
בְּצַלְעִי
bəṣalʿî
GROWS FROM
צלע
ts-l-ʿ
To limp, be lame, or halt.
The Hebrew phrase means “in my limping” or “in my stumbling,” giving bodily shape to the KJV’s “adversity.” The same root appears in other laments for being ready to halt, so the word carries the image of suffering as lost footing.
ALSO GROWS
tsōlēaʿ: Limping or halting.
צֹלֵעַ
In Genesis 32:31, Jacob halts after his injury; the same root makes the speaker’s adversity concrete as a bodily falter.
ləṣelaʿ: Ready to halt.
לְצֶלַע
Psalm 38:17 uses this form for being ready to halt, linking adversity with the experience of losing one’s footing.
נֵכִים
nēkhîm
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
To strike or smite; in related forms, to be stricken or lame.
“strikers” in this verse is nēkhîm. The KJV’s “abjects” translates a word commonly understood as the stricken or lame, from the same root as “strike.” The people gathering against the speaker are described with the language of affliction, then immediately shown tearing at him.
ALSO GROWS
nāḵāh: To strike or smite.
נָכָה
This verbal form supplies the root’s action of striking, beneath the description of the people gathered against the speaker.
nāḵeh: Stricken or lame.
נָכֶה
This related form names a condition of being struck or impaired, echoing the verse’s image of people gathering around a moment of vulnerability.
קָרְעוּ
qārəʿû
GROWS FROM
קרע
q-r-ʿ
To tear or rend apart.
“tear at me” in this verse is qārəʿû. The verb depicts forceful rending, and the verse pairs it with “ceased not” to show the assault continuing without pause. This root can describe tearing garments or the heart, but here the verse keeps the image of tearing the speaker stark and violent.
ALSO GROWS
qāraʿ: To tear or rend.
קָרַע
In Genesis 37:29, Reuben rends his clothes; the same verb makes tearing a visible response to distress.
qirʿû: Rend or tear.
קִרְעוּ
Joel 2:13 uses the same root for rending the heart, showing how the verb can name a tearing that reaches inward as well as outward.
THE PATTERN
When suffering exposes someone, those around them can turn it into a spectacle and join the wound.
And do not gaze upon the day of your brother, the day he became a foreigner. Do not rejoice over the children of Judah on the day they lost their way. Do not make your mouth large in the day of the narrow place.All who see me mock me; they open their lips, they shake the head.Those passing by spoke evil against him, shaking their heads.THE THREAD
For I am set to limp, and my pain stands before me always.The word behind “adversity” is built on צלע (ts-l-ʿ, “to limp or halt”), and Psalm 38:17 uses that same root in “ready to halt.” The shared root renders anguish as a loss of footing rather than an abstract misfortune; here, the gathering happens at that vulnerable point.
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