Psalm 69
The full text of Psalm 69 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
For the choirmaster. According to Lilies. Of David.
1 Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
2 I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
3 I am weary with my crying out;
my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
with waiting for my God.
4 More in number than the hairs of my head
are those who hate me without cause;
mighty are those who would destroy me,
those who attack me with lies.
What I did not steal
must I now restore?
5 O God, you know my folly;
the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
6 Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me,
O Lord GOD of hosts;
let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,
O God of Israel.
7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
that dishonor has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother's sons.
9 For zeal for your house has consumed me,
and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10 When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,
it became my reproach.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them.
12 I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,
and the drunkards make songs about me.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD.
At an acceptable time, O God,
in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me
in your saving faithfulness.
14 Deliver me from sinking in the mire;
let me be delivered from my enemies
and from the deep waters.
15 Let not the flood sweep over me,
or the deep swallow me up,
or the pit close its mouth over me.
16 Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good;
according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
17 Hide not your face from your servant,
for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.
18 Draw near to my soul, redeem me;
ransom me because of my enemies!
19 You know my reproach,
and my shame and my dishonor;
my foes are all known to you.
20 Reproaches have broken my heart,
so that I am in despair.
I looked for pity, but there was none,
and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me poison for food,
and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
22 Let their own table before them become a snare;
and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see,
and make their loins tremble continually.
24 Pour out your indignation upon them,
and let your burning anger overtake them.
25 May their camp be a desolation;
let no one dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom you have struck down,
and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.
27 Add to them punishment upon punishment;
may they have no acquittal from you.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living;
let them not be enrolled among the righteous.
29 But I am afflicted and in pain;
let your salvation, O God, set me on high!
30 I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 This will please the LORD more than an ox
or a bull with horns and hoofs.
32 When the humble see it they will be glad;
you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
33 For the LORD hears the needy
and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.
34 Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and everything that moves in them.
35 For God will save Zion
and build up the cities of Judah,
and people shall dwell there and possess it;
36 the offspring of his servants shall inherit it,
and those who love his name shall dwell in it.
Translation notes (7)
- Psalm 69:4a The adverb chinnam (חִנָּם), 'without cause', marks the hatred as gratuitous, and the final line implies a false accusation of theft: the speaker is compelled to repay what he never took. Jesus applies the phrase 'they hated me without cause' to himself in John 15:25, citing the Greek of this psalm tradition.
- Psalm 69:9a Hebrew qin'ah (קִנְאָה), 'zeal', denotes a consuming, jealous devotion. Both halves of this verse are quoted in the New Testament: John 2:17 applies the first line to Jesus at the temple cleansing, following the Septuagint's future tense 'will consume', and Paul applies the second line to Christ in Romans 15:3.
- Psalm 69:12a The city gate was the seat of legal proceedings and civic business, so yoshvei sha'ar, 'those who sit in the gate', denotes the elders and respected men of the community (compare Ruth 4:1-2). The psalmist is thus mocked across the whole social range, from the town's judges to shotei shekhar, 'drinkers of strong drink'.
- Psalm 69:21a Hebrew rosh (רֹאשׁ), 'poison' or 'gall', denotes a bitter, toxic plant, while chomets (חֹמֶץ) is the cheap sour wine of laborers and soldiers. The Gospels present this verse as fulfilled at the crucifixion, where Jesus is offered wine mixed with gall (Matthew 27:34) and sour wine on a sponge (Matthew 27:48; John 19:29).
- Psalm 69:22a Paul quotes this verse in Romans 11:9-10, applying the psalmist's imprecation to Israel's hardening. He follows the Septuagint, which took the Hebrew shelomim, 'those at peace' or 'times of security', as 'recompense' (Greek antapodoma), yielding 'a retribution for them' where the Masoretic Text speaks of a trap sprung amid safety.
- Psalm 69:25a Peter cites this verse in Acts 1:20, following the Septuagint, to interpret the fate of Judas Iscariot and the vacancy of his office. The Hebrew tirah, 'camp' or 'encampment', evokes a nomadic settlement; the Greek of Acts renders it epaulis, 'homestead', narrowing the curse to a single dwelling left empty.
- Psalm 69:28a Hebrew sefer chayyim (סֵפֶר חַיִּים), literally 'book of the living', reflects the ancient Near Eastern image of a divine register in which the names of the living are recorded; to be blotted out is to be sentenced to death. The image appears also in Exodus 32:32-33 and is later developed eschatologically, as in Revelation 3:5.
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