Bible Strands
Psalms 22:6
But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks to YHWH from a position of total social and personal collapse, between a recollection of past deliverance (v. 5) and a description of onlookers mocking him (v. 7). He is naming his condition before God, not asking for information.
The words — תולעת (tole'at, "worm") is a rare, deliberately degrading self-designation that strips away human dignity; חרפת (cherpat, "reproach") names the social action done to him rather than his internal feeling.
The thread — Job 25:6 calls man a worm in the same reductive register; Isaiah 41:14 applies "worm" to Jacob as an object of divine help rather than contempt; Isaiah 53:3 carries the "despised" language into a corporate suffering figure.
Why it lands — It asks the reader to hold the speaker's self-assessment (worm, not man) without immediately correcting it, and to notice that the address is still directed at God despite the content. The verse does not resolve the suffering; it shows that the lowest self-image can still be spoken to the one who hears.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
- Job 25:6 how much less man, who is but a maggot, and the son of man, who is but a worm!”
- Isaiah 41:14 Do not fear, O Jacob, you worm, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
- Isaiah 49:7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, to Him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the Servant of rulers: “Kings will see You and rise, and princes will bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen You.”
- Psalms 69:7 For I have endured scorn for Your sake, and shame has covered my face.
- Psalms 69:19 You know my reproach, my shame and disgrace. All my adversaries are before You.
- Psalms 31:11 Among all my enemies I am a disgrace, and among my neighbors even more. I am dreaded by my friends—they flee when they see me on the street.
- Matthew 11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by her actions.”
- Matthew 27:20 But the chief priests and elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus put to death.
- Lamentations 3:30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach.