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Psalm 35:16
Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me.
14I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.
15But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease.
16Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me.
17Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, my precious life from the lions.
18I will give you thanks in the great assembly. I will praise you among many people.
Notice
Gnashing teeth turns the feast’s mockery into a picture of open hostility, made harsher by the care David had shown these people in their distress.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What difference do the gnashing teeth make to your reading of the mockery at these feasts?
Write on thisWhat, if anything, from your own experience would you name before God alongside David’s account of mockery?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 37:12The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth.Both psalms describe attackers gnashing their teeth at another person, making hostility visible in a bodily gesture.
Job 16:9He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.David and Job both describe teeth gnashed against them, using the same fierce image to recount the hostility they face.
Lamentations 2:16All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that …Both passages portray enemies gnashing their teeth, with mockery in the psalm and boasts of destruction in Lamentations.
Acts 7:54Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.Both passages describe a group gnashing their teeth at one person as an expression of hostility.
2 Chronicles 36:16but they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the LORD’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no …Mockery appears in both texts, directed at David in the psalm and at God’s messengers in Chronicles.
John 18:28They led Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. It was early, and they themselves didn’t enter into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, …The connection is limited to feasting: Psalm 35 mentions mockers at feasts, while John names preparations to eat the Passover.
Matthew 20:19and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up.”Both texts name mockery among hostile acts against a person; Matthew also names scourging and crucifixion.
Job 11:3Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, will no man make you ashamed?Both texts speak of mockery, though David reports being targeted while Job’s speaker accuses the person being addressed.
Job 12:4I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.David describes being mocked, and Job describes becoming a joke to his neighbor despite having called on God.
1 Samuel 20:24–42So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon had come, the king sat himself down to eat food.The shared detail is a meal setting; Samuel names the king eating, without describing the mockery found in Psalm 35.
Isaiah 1:14–15My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.Both passages mention feasts in a negative setting: David describes profane mockers, while Isaiah records God’s rejection of appointed feasts.
1 Corinthians 5:8Therefore let’s keep the feast, not with old yeast, neither with the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.Both connect feasting with moral conduct: Psalm 35 describes profane mockers, while Corinthians urges a feast marked by sincerity and truth.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. broken friendship.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
If mockery has left you short of words, David’s blunt account has room for that hurt. His plea for God’s rescue begins while the hostility remains unresolved.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 35:16. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).