What Does Psalm 55:13 Mean?
But you are a man set in line beside me, my familiar one, and the one I know.
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 it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.THE KEY
The breach comes from someone whose closeness is part of the wound: the one who guides and knows you.
THE MEANING
The wound reaches you through someone who stands as your equal, has guided you, and is known within your life. The nearness that once carried trust now sharpens the breach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The person who knows me well cannot be the one who turns against me.
THE ROOT
מְיֻדָּעִי
meyudda‘i
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
“the one I know” in this verse is meyudda‘i. This word comes from יָדַע (yada, to know or perceive through encounter) and names someone as a person known. That knowing sits at the heart of the betrayal: the wound comes through recognized closeness, not an unknown adversary.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or perceive through encounter.
יָדַע
The same seed presents knowing as relational recognition, giving “acquaintance” more depth than a passing association.
moda: A kinsman or familiar acquaintance.
מֹדָע
This related word can name someone known through kinship or close relation, making the intimacy in the verse concrete.
אַלּוּפִי
allufi
GROWS FROM
א־ל־ף
To learn or become familiar; in a derived form, to teach or train.
“my familiar one” in this verse is allufi. The word translated “guide” belongs to a family that carries both familiarity and leadership. This is not merely someone ahead on the way, but a trusted close one whose guidance is woven into the relationship.
ALSO GROWS
alaph: To learn, become familiar, or teach.
אָלַף
The root links guidance with learning and familiarity, bringing instruction into the bond named here.
alluf: An intimate companion or chief.
אַלּוּף
The related word joins closeness with leadership, holding the guide’s role and the familiar bond together.
כְּעֶרְכִּי
ke’erki
GROWS FROM
ע־ר־ך
To arrange or set in order; by extension, to assess or rank.
“set in line beside me” in this verse is ke’erki. The phrase carries the sense of someone according to the speaker’s measure or rank. The verse names a peer on corresponding ground before it names the guidance and knowing that make the breach so close.
ALSO GROWS
arakh: To arrange or set in order.
עָרַךְ
The root’s sense of placing things in relation helps show the equal as someone standing alongside the speaker.
erekh: Worth, value, or rank.
עֵרֶךְ
This related form makes the measure of the relationship clearer: the person is a peer of corresponding standing.
THE PATTERN
A breach cuts deeply when it comes through a bond built on shared trust and familiarity.
Even the man of my wholeness, upon whom I leaned my weight, eats my bread and lifts his heel against me.Do not lean your weight on a companion; do not lean your full weight upon the familiar one. Guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies against your bosom.I do not speak of all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but so that the writing may be filled, the one who chews my bread has lifted up his heel against me.THE THREAD
I am laid bare before all who press in on me, most of all before my neighbors; a shudder to those who know me, and those who see me out in the open flee from me.The same root י־ד־ע (yada, to know or perceive through encounter) appears in “mine acquaintance” here and in Psalm 31:11. In both verses, the known relationship is named at the point of rupture, making the loss sharper through its closeness.
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