What Does Psalm 9:13 Mean?
Favor me, O LORD; see my bowing low from those who hate me, you who lift me up from the gates of death.
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
Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:THE KEY
The verse holds being seen and being raised together: the one who looks at your affliction is also the one who lifts you from death’s gates.
THE MEANING
You are asking the LORD to look directly at the trouble those who hate you bring. The one you call upon is also named as the one who raises you from death’s gates; even there, you are within reach of being lifted.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that reaching death’s threshold puts you beyond the reach of help.
THE ROOT
מְרוֹמְמֵנִי
meromemeni
GROWS FROM
רום
רום (rum): to be high, rise, or raise.
The verb translated “liftest me up” comes from the root for height and rising. Set beside the gates of death, it pictures a change of position: the speaker is raised from the threshold of death.
ALSO GROWS
ram: High, exalted.
רָם
The same root names the raised position toward which the speaker is lifted.
marom: Height, high place.
מָרוֹם
The verb for lifting shares its root with a word for height, giving the rescue an upward direction.
עָנְיִי
ʿonyi
GROWS FROM
ענה
ענה (ʿanah): to be bowed down or afflicted.
“bowing low” in this verse is ʿonyi. The speaker’s “trouble” is named as affliction, from a root that can mean being brought low. This gives the verse a sharp movement: the speaker is pressed down by hatred, then lifted by the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
ʿani: Afflicted, poor, or lowly.
עָנִי
This related word describes someone in the low condition named in the speaker’s plea.
ʿinnah: To afflict or bring low.
עִנָּה
This verb makes the force of the affliction explicit: someone is being brought down.
חָנְנֵנִי
ḥonnēnî
GROWS FROM
חנן
חנן (ḥanan): to show favor or be gracious.
“Favor me” in this verse is ḥonnēnî. The request translated “have mercy” comes from the Hebrew family of favor and graciousness. It presents the plea as asking for favor while the suffering remains real.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor.
חֵן
This related noun names the favor the speaker asks to receive.
ḥannûn: Gracious, showing favor.
חַנּוּן
This related form describes the quality of one who grants favor.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s deliverance reaches the person under threat and raises them beyond its reach.
My rescuer from my enemies; even above those who rise against me you lift me up; from the man of violence you pull me free.O LORD, you brought up my living soul from Sheol. You kept me alive from those who go down into the pit.Who brought us out of so great a death, and brings us out; in whom we hope that he will yet bring us out.THE THREAD
My rescuer from my enemies; even above those who rise against me you lift me up; from the man of violence you pull me free.In both verses, “liftest me up” comes from רום (rum), the root meaning to rise or raise. Psalm 18:48 places the speaker above enemies; Psalm 9:13 places that raising at the gates of death.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us