What Does Psalm 55:20 Mean?
He stretches out his hands against those in wholeness with him, and he pierces his covenant.
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
He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken his covenant.THE KEY
The hand that reaches into shared wholeness can become the very force that violates it.
THE MEANING
You may be at peace with someone and still face their hands turned against you. The betrayal wounds the person and profanes the covenant that binds you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A shared peace or covenant does not guarantee that the other person will protect the bond.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁלַח
yishlach
GROWS FROM
ש-ל-ח
sh-l-ḥ
Send forth, release, or extend; with a hand, stretch out.
“stretches out his hands” in this verse is yishlach. “Put forth” carries the sense of a hand sent outward toward someone: the movement itself is directed, and here it is directed against a companion. The opening sounds echo the word for wholeness, though these are distinct roots: the extending hand is aimed at the shared wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shilluach: A sending or release away.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch shows the outward motion of the root; here that motion reaches against the person instead of releasing them.
Shiloach: A name carrying the sense of what is sent forth.
שִׁלֹחַ
The sent waters that restore sight give this root a restorative branch, sharpening the contrast with a hand sent against another.
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
ש-ל-ם
sh-l-m
Be whole or complete; bring something to wholeness.
The word carries wholeness and well-being beneath “peace,” so the relationship here is a shared condition, not merely the absence of conflict. Its opening sounds echo the verb for sending forth, placing the hand’s movement beside the wholeness it harms.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the depth of “at peace” visible: the bond is a condition of shared wholeness.
shelamim: Offerings associated with well-being and shared peace.
שְׁלָמִים
The same root family connects wholeness with a shared offering, deepening the sense of a bond that the verse says has been violated.
shillem: To repay or render what is due.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch shows the root family also holding the idea of what is rendered in return; here the response to shared peace is betrayal.
THE PATTERN
Betrayal turns the gestures and bonds of shared life against the very person they once joined.
Even the man of my wholeness, upon whom I leaned my weight, eats my bread and lifts his heel against me.But they, like Adam, have crossed over the covenant; there they have betrayed me.And he answered and said, He who dips his hand with me in the dish, this one will hand me over.THE THREAD
For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may strike you and your people with plague, and you shall be cut off from the earth.Exodus uses the same root, שָׁלַח (shalach, send forth or stretch out), for a hand extended to strike; Psalm uses that hand-motion against someone sharing the speaker’s wholeness. The pairing makes the verb concrete: the hand’s reach is a directed act, and its target shows whether it wounds.
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