What Does Psalm 38:19 Mean?

But my enemies are alive and strong, and those who hate me falsely multiply.

Psalm 38:19 · 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

But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

THE KEY

The verse separates the force and size of opposition from the truth of its cause.

THE MEANING

Your opposition may be active, forceful, and multiplying while its hatred is still grounded in falsehood. Its energy and numbers describe the pressure around you; they do not turn falsehood into truth.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that widespread, forceful opposition proves the accusation against you must be true.

THE ROOT

שֶׁקֶר

sheqer

GROWS FROM

שקר

sh-q-r

Falsehood; acting falsely or deceitfully.

“falsely” in this verse is sheqer. The KJV’s “wrongfully” carries the sharper image of sheqer: falsehood or deception. The same root appears in “false witness” in Psalm 27:12, showing how hostility can speak through a claim that is itself false.

ALSO GROWS

ʿēd sheqer: False witness.

עֵד שֶׁקֶר

Psalm 27:12 uses this phrase for testimony formed from falsehood, giving the verse’s wrongful hatred a public voice.

shāqar: To lie or deal falsely.

שָׁקַר

This verbal branch shows falsehood as something enacted, illuminating how hostility can be expressed through deceptive claims.

עָצְמוּ

ʿāṣəmû

GROWS FROM

עצם

ʿ-ṣ-m

To become strong or mighty; in related forms, to become numerous.

This root can describe growing mighty as well as becoming numerous, placing “strong” beside “multiplied” in a shared field of expanding force. Their number registers the pressure around you, while the verse keeps their false hatred separate from truth.

ALSO GROWS

ʿāṣûm: Mighty; numerous.

עָצוּם

This related form holds strength and abundance together, adding weight to the verse’s picture of opposition.

ʿeṣem: Bone; bodily substance.

עֶצֶם

This concrete branch evokes solidity, giving “strong” a sense of substantial force.

THE PATTERN

A growing crowd of opponents does not make its accusation true.

Do not give me into the throat of those who press me narrow; for false witnesses rise up against me, and breathe out violence.

Psalm 27:12 · SDVFalse witnesses rise against the speaker, showing how hostility can take the form of untrue testimony.

Flourishing are you when they revile you, and pursue you, and speak every evil word against you, lying, for my sake.

Matthew 5:11 · SDVReviling and persecution can come with false speech, so the force of opposition does not establish the truth of its claims.

Let my enemies not rejoice over me falsely; let those who hate me for nothing not wink with the eye.

Psalm 35:19 · SDVThe speaker names hatred without cause, echoing opposition whose intensity gives it no justification.

THE THREAD

Do not give me into the throat of those who press me narrow; for false witnesses rise up against me, and breathe out violence.

Psalm 27:12 · SDV

The word rendered “wrongfully” here is ⁨שֶׁקֶר⁩ (sheqer, falsehood), the same root in Psalm 27:12’s “false witnesses.” That shared root links multiplied hatred with testimony made from falsehood: the accusation can gather force without becoming true.

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