What Does Psalm 35:21 Mean?
They open their mouth wide against me; they say, Aha, aha, our eye has seen it.
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
Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.THE KEY
The Hebrew says they did not merely open their mouths against him; they widened them, making accusation itself take up space.
THE MEANING
The verse names the moment others make an accusation feel settled: their mouths widen against the reader, and they claim their eyes have seen enough. Their certainty turns looking into a public verdict, but confidence is not proof. The reader is exposed to that claim without being defined by it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being watched and accused with certainty does not mean the accusation has been proven.
THE ROOT
וַיַּרְחִיבוּ
wayyarchivu
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be broad or wide; in this verb form, to make wide.
“open” in this verse is wayyarchivu. The verb pictures them making their mouths broad against the speaker; accusation takes up space. The same root also names a broad place, so the widening here is not spaciousness itself but expansion turned against someone.
ALSO GROWS
merḥav: Broad place, open space.
מֶרְחָב
This branch shows the root can name room to move; Psalm 18:19 uses it for the broad place the speaker is brought into.
reḥov: Street or open place.
רְחֹב
This branch carries the sense of breadth into a public space, echoing how the accusers make their claim public.
THE PATTERN
Hostile observers turn what they claim to see into a public verdict and make contempt audible.
All who see me mock me; they open their lips, they shake the head.They have gaped their mouths wide against me. They have struck my cheek in scorn. They have gathered together against me.Those passing by spoke evil against him, shaking their heads.THE THREAD
He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.The root רחב, “to be broad or make wide,” appears here in “a large place” (מֶרְחָב, merḥav). In Psalm 35, mouths widen against the speaker; here, the same root names the space into which the speaker is brought.
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