What Does Psalm 55:5 Mean?
Fear and trembling come upon me, and shuddering covers me.
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
Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.THE KEY
The verse depicts dread arriving within you while horror becomes a covering around you.
THE MEANING
Dread arrives within you; trembling takes hold, and horror covers you. The verse gives overwhelm both an inner force and a physical shape.
THE ROOT
וַתְּכַסֵּנִי
vattekhaseni
GROWS FROM
כסה
to cover, conceal, or spread over
“covers” in this verse is vattekhaseni. The Hebrew verb carries the image of horror covering the speaker, alongside the force of being overwhelmed. Terror becomes a layer around the person, as well as something felt within.
ALSO GROWS
kasah: to cover or conceal
כָּסָה
This verb shares the root כסה and names the covering action at the center of the verse’s image.
mikhseh: a covering or outer cover
מִכְסֶה
This noun from the same root names what covers, giving the verb’s image a tangible form.
וָרַעַד
va-ra'ad
GROWS FROM
רעד
to shake, quake, or tremble
“trembling” in this verse is va-ra'ad. The word names a body’s shaking, so dread arrives as felt movement rather than an abstraction. Beside the covering verb, it gives fear motion within and enclosure around.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ad: to tremble or quake
רָעַד
The verb form shares the root רעד and names the shaking carried by the verse’s noun.
re'adah: trembling or quaking
רְעָדָה
This noun from the same root names the shaking as a state.
פַּלָּצוּת
pallatsut
GROWS FROM
פלץ
to shudder or quake with terror
The Hebrew word for horror carries the sense of shuddering terror. What covers the speaker is itself marked by a bodily tremor, not just a generalized alarm.
ALSO GROWS
palats: to shudder or tremble in terror
פָּלַץ
This verb shares the root פלץ and gives the horror in the verse its shuddering quality.
pallatsut: shuddering terror or horror
פַּלָּצוּת
This noun from the same root names the terror that covers the speaker.
THE PATTERN
Distress is pictured as arriving and engulfing a person or vessel, giving inward overwhelm an outer form.
Fear met me, and trembling, which made all my bones come apart.The waters surrounded me up to my living soul; the deep closed in around me, and reeds wrapped about my head.And a great storm of wind arose, and the waves were thrown into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.THE THREAD
My heart has reeled. Fear has shaken me. The dusk I clung to has been turned into trembling.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew noun פַּלָּצוּת (pallatsut, shuddering terror) as Psalm 55. The shared word names horror as a bodily shudder that takes hold.
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