What Does Psalm 38:16 Mean?

For I say, Let them not rejoice over me; when my foot slips, they swell against me.

Psalm 38:16 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.

THE KEY

Their self-made greatness rises precisely where your footing gives way.

THE MEANING

You know the dread of being watched while your footing falters and having others turn that moment into their triumph. The verse holds both the stumble and their rejoicing in the same frame, so the pain includes what happens around your fall as well as the fall itself.

THE ROOT

הִגְדִּילוּ

higdilu

GROWS FROM

גדל

g-d-l

Grow or become great; in this form, make great.

“swell” in this verse is higdilu. The Hebrew verb belongs to the family of growing or making great. They make themselves large against you precisely as your foot slips, tying their apparent elevation to your exposed moment.

ALSO GROWS

gadol: Great, large

גָּדוֹל

The adjective “great” comes from the same seed; English does not show that their magnifying is an act of making themselves great.

migdal: Tower

מִגְדָּל

A tower is a thing raised high, making visible this root family’s movement toward height and scale.

בְּמוֹט

bemot

GROWS FROM

מוט

m-w-t

Totter, waver, slip, or be moved.

“foot slips” in this verse is bemot. The root carries both slipping and being moved, two shades English separates. Here your foot loses steadiness while others use that very moment to enlarge themselves against you.

ALSO GROWS

mot: Totter, waver, slip

מוֹט

This verb family can also be translated “be moved,” linking a slipping step with a loss of steadiness.

motah: Pole or bar of a yoke

מוֹטָה

A noun in this family names a bar placed across a yoke; beside the slipping foot, it brings the image of weight and what bears it into view.

THE PATTERN

When one person falls, another’s response reveals whether their joy is shared or built from the other’s distress.

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart leap when he stumbles.

Proverbs 24:17 · SDVIt names the exact temptation in this verse: taking an opponent’s fall as a reason for gladness.

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.

Obadiah 1:12 · SDVIt joins rejoicing at another’s destruction with speaking proudly over the day of distress, the same pairing of delight and self-exaltation.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

Romans 12:15 · SDVIt describes shared joy and shared grief as the relational pattern, rather than turning another person’s collapse into private elevation.

THE THREAD

When I say, My foot slips; your faithful love, LORD, props me up.

Psalm 94:18 · SDV

Psalm 94:18 repeats the same root behind “my foot slippeth,” then names what holds the speaker: the LORD’s faithful love. This verse sets that same unstable moment beside hostile gazes, where others make themselves great over it.

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