But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.

  • KJV King James Version

    But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    (22-7) But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

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Cross-references (19)

Passages linked to Psalms 22:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
  • Job 25:6 How much less man, who is a worm, the son of man, who is a worm!”
  • Isaiah 41:14 Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says Yahweh. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
  • Isaiah 49:7 Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and rise up, princes, and they shall worship, because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
  • Psalms 69:7-12 Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children. For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
  • Psalms 69:19-20 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you. Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.
  • Psalms 31:11 Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
  • Matthew 11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”
  • Matthew 27:20-23 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes to ask for Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. But the governor answered them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!” Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do to Jesus, who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let him be crucified!” But the governor said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they cried out exceedingly, saying, “Let him be crucified!”
  • Lamentations 3:30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
  • Hebrews 13:12 Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate.
  • Revelation 15:3 They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations.
  • Psalms 88:8 You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.
  • Matthew 12:24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”
  • John 7:15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How does this man know letters, having never been educated?”
  • John 7:47-49 The Pharisees therefore answered them, “You aren’t also led astray, are you? Have any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees? But this multitude that doesn’t know the law is cursed.”
  • John 8:48 Then the Jews answered him, “Don’t we say well that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon?”
  • Psalms 31:1 In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Let me never be disappointed. Deliver me in your righteousness.
  • John 7:20 The multitude answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?”

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (17 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 6. But I am a worm, and not a…

6. But I am a worm, and not a man. David does not murmur against God as if God had dealt hardly with him; but in bewailing his condition, he says, in order the more effectually to induce God to show him mercy, that he is not accounted so much as a man. This, it is true, seems at first sight to have a tendency to discourage the mind, or rather to destroy faith; but it will appear more clearly from the sequel, that so far from this being the case, David declares how miserable his condition is, that by this means he may encourage himself in the hope of obtaining relief. He therefore argues that it could not be but that God would at length stretch forth his hand to save him; to save him, I say, who was so severely afflicted, and on the brink of despair. If God has had compassion on all who have ever been afflicted, although afflicted only in a moderate degree, how could he forsake his servant when plunged in the lowest abyss of all calamities? Whenever, therefore, we are overwhelmed under a great weight of afflictions, we ought rather to take from this an argument to encourage us to hope for deliverance, than suffer ourselves to fall into despair. If God so severely exercised his most eminent servant David, and abased him so far that he had not a place even among the most despised of men, let us not take it ill, if, after his example, we are brought low. We ought, however, principally to call to our remembrance the Son of God, in whose person we know this also was fulfilled, as Isaiah had predicted,

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3)

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By these words of the prophet we are furnished with a sufficient refutation of the frivolous subtlety of those who have philosophised upon the word worm, as if David here pointed out some singular mystery in the generation of Christ; whereas his meaning simply is, that he had been abased beneath all men, and, as it were, cut off from the number of living beings. The fact that the Son of God suffered himself to be reduced to such ignominy, yea, descended even to hell, is so far from obscuring, in any respect, his celestial glory, that it is rather a bright mirror from which is reflected his unparalleled grace towards us.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain And seeming most miserable of all creatures, which was…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 22:6 But I [am] a worm, and no…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Our fathers were honoured by thee and by others,…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain But I am a worm, and no man,.... Christ…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain A worm - Neglected and despised. People - Not…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. But I am a worm, and no…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 22:6. But I am a worm, and no…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain But I am a worm, and no man -…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain He who was despised and rejected of His own…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 6. But I am a worm, and no man—The…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. a worm] Trampled under foot, despised, defenceless. Almost…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (6) Worm.—An indication of extreme degradation and helplessness. (Comp.…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain But I am a worm, and no man. (comp.…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 6. But I am a worm, and no…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 I am a worm and not a man
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 22:6-8 Both the Lord and people reject the psalmist.…

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