Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Psalms 35:19 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 19. 19Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 35:19: Within “A plea against violent and false accusers,” the line “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me” supplies one distinct parallel claim, image, address, or response.
Plead my cause: a petition, not a hunt
This verse is one part of that explanation in Psalms 35:1–28. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- Psalms 35:1–28
Read Psalms 35:19 with 35:1–28. Read alone, “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me” could lose the individual voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 35:1–28, the individual voice carries the movement “A plea against violent and false accusers” as part of “A plea against violent and false accusers.” Its lament-imprecation form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 35:1–28 opens Psalm 35 with “Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me” and establishes the individual voice and “A plea against violent and false accusers” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Within that relationship, Psalm 35:19 adds the distinct poetic line “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me” within “A plea against violent and false accusers,” where its parallel neighbors determine emphasis and scope.
Follow the Context
- Identify the individual voice, address, and parallel lines in Psalms 35:1–28; do not make every “I”, “we,” king, enemy, or worshiper interchangeable.
- Within Psalms 35:1–28, the individual voice carries the movement “A plea against violent and false accusers” as part of “A plea against violent and false accusers.” Its lament-imprecation form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
- This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The speaker petitions God against grave harm; the curses must not be weaponized against personal critics or enacted as revenge.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Psalms 35:19 does not allow “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me” to become an independent promise, command, accusation, doctrine, or authorization. This verse adds the distinct poetic line “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me” within “A plea against violent and false accusers,” where its parallel neighbors determine emphasis and scope. The complete movement is “A plea against violent and false accusers.” This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The speaker petitions God against grave harm; the curses must not be weaponized against personal critics or enacted as revenge.
What Remains True
The verse's role is specific—Psalm 35:19 adds the distinct poetic line “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me” within “A plea against violent and false accusers,” where its parallel neighbors determine emphasis and scope. Within that role, Wrong and rage may be named honestly before the LORD, yet judgment remains accountable to justice and never turns another person into disposable prey. The local movement is “A plea against violent and false accusers.” The unit's reviewed limit is: The speaker petitions God against grave harm; the curses must not be weaponized against personal critics or enacted as revenge.
How It Can Shape Life
- Psalm 35:19 contributes to “A plea against violent and false accusers” in a specific way: Psalm 35:19 adds the distinct poetic line “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me” within “A plea against violent and false accusers,” where its parallel neighbors determine emphasis and scope. Respond by doing this: Name the actual harm behind “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me”, seek protection and fair judgment, and refuse to enact the poem's anger against a critic, group, or imagined enemy.
Teach It Back
Show how “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me” functions in the lament-imprecation poem “A plea against violent and false accusers.” Your explanation should include context, source evidence, uncertainty, enduring truth, practice, and the explicit limit This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The speaker petitions God against grave harm; the curses must not be weaponized against personal critics or enacted as revenge.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Psalms 35:1–28 — A plea against violent and false accusersSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
Where care is needed
The speaker petitions God against grave harm; the curses must not be weaponized against personal critics or enacted as revenge.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 35:1–28, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 35:1–28
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 35:1–28.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 35 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 35:1–28
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗modern scholarly book course
Psalms course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Fred Gaiser; revised by Nicholas Schaser
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, revised May 2024
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Psalms course, Introductory Issues: individual and communal lament, from lament to praise, and Bible in the World; applied to Psalms 35:1–28
Open the Enter the Bible Psalms course ↗ancient greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Psalms
Albert Pietersma
International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies; Oxford University Press, 2009
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
Exact location: NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 35 for Psalms 35:1–28
Open NETS Psalms ↗peer reviewed open access research overview
An Overview of the Study of Imprecatory Psalms: Reformed and Evangelical Approaches to the Interpretation of Imprecatory Psalms
Daniel Simango and P. Paul Krüger
Old Testament Essays 29.3, 2016
Supports: Major historical, literary, covenantal, ethical, and reception approaches to curses and enemy language.
Exact location: Simango and Krüger, 'An Overview of the Study of Imprecatory Psalms,' OTE 29.3 (2016), pp. 581–600, complete approach survey; applied to Psalms 35:1–28
Open the imprecatory-psalm overview ↗peer reviewed open access literary and ethical study
Embracing the Psalter's imprecatory words in the 21st century
Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford
Acta Theologica Supplementum 32, 2021
Supports: Imprecation retained as difficult prayer and communal speech without converting violent wishes into commands or erasing Jewish reception.
Exact location: deClaissé-Walford, 'Embracing the Psalter's imprecatory words,' Acta Theologica Suppl. 32 (2021), pp. 275–292, especially literary, liturgical, trauma, and ethical proposal; applied to Psalms 35:1–28
Open deClaissé-Walford on imprecation ↗