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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 69

1 For the music director, according to the tune of “Lilies”; by David. Deliver me, O God, for the water has reached my neck. 2 I sink into the deep mire where there is no solid ground; I am in deep water, and the current overpowers me. 3 I am exhausted from shouting for help. My throat is sore; my eyes grow tired from looking for my God.⁠ 4 Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head. Those who want to destroy me, my enemies for no reason, outnumber me. They make me repay what I did not steal. 5 O God, you are aware of my foolish sins; my guilt is not hidden from you. 6 Let none who rely on you be disgraced because of me, O Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Let none who seek you be ashamed because of me, O God of Israel. 7 For I suffer humiliation for your sake and am thoroughly disgraced. 8 My own brothers treat me like a stranger; they act as if I were a foreigner. 9 Certainly zeal for your house consumes me; I endure the insults of those who insult you. 10 I weep and refrain from eating food, which causes others to insult me. 11 I wear sackcloth and they ridicule me. 12 Those who sit at the city gate gossip about me; drunkards mock me in their songs. 13 O Lord, may you hear my prayer and be favorably disposed to me. O God, because of your great loyal love, answer me with your faithful deliverance. 14 Rescue me from the mud. Don’t let me sink. Deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep water.⁠ 15 Don’t let the current overpower me. Don’t let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the Pit devour me. 16 Answer me, O Lord, for your loyal love is good. Because of your great compassion, turn toward me. 17 Do not ignore your servant, for I am in trouble. Answer me right away. 18 Come near me and redeem me. Because of my enemies, rescue me. 19 You know how I am insulted, humiliated, and disgraced; you can see all my enemies. 20 Their insults are painful and make me lose heart; I look for sympathy, but receive none, for comforters, but find none. 21 They put bitter poison into my food, and to quench my thirst they give me vinegar to drink.⁠ 22 May their dining table become a trap before them. May it be a snare for that group of friends. 23 May their eyes be blinded. Make them shake violently.⁠ 24 Pour out your judgment on them. May your raging anger overtake them. 25 May their camp become desolate, their tents uninhabited. 26 For they harass the one whom you discipline; they spread the news about the suffering of those whom you punish. 27 Hold them accountable for all their sins. Do not vindicate them. 28 May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living. Do not let their names be listed with the godly.⁠ 29 I am oppressed and suffering. O God, deliver and protect me. 30 I will sing praises to God’s name. I will magnify him as I give him thanks. 31 That will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hooves. 32 The oppressed look on—let them rejoice. You who seek God, may you be encouraged. 33 For the Lord listens to the needy; he does not despise his captive people. 34 Let the heavens and the earth praise him, along with the seas and everything that swims in them. 35 For God will deliver Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah, and his people will again live in them and possess Zion. 36 The descendants of his servants will inherit it, and those who are loyal to him will live in it.

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalm 69:23 and LXX Psalms 68:24

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Psalm 69 uses curse language to call for the enemies’ eyes to go blind and their bodies to shake. This language was reused rhetorically in later traditions, such as the Greek Septuagint, to explain differences in belief.

Passages

Psalm 69:23

Hebrew Bible
21 They put bitter poison into my food, and to quench my thirst they give me vinegar to drink. 22 May their dining table become a trap before them. May it be a snare for that group of friends. 23 May their eyes be blinded. Make them shake violently. 24 Pour out your judgment on them. May your raging anger overtake them. 25 May their camp become desolate, their tents uninhabited.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

LXX Psalms 68:24

Septuagint
21 My soul has waited for reproach and misery; and I waited for one to grieve with me, but there was none; and for one to comfort me, but I found none. 22 They gave me also gall for my food, and made me drink vinegar for my thirst. 23 Let their table before them be for a snare, and for a punishment, and for a stumbling block. 24 Let their eyes be darkened that they should not see; and bow down their back continually. 25 Pour out your fierce anger upon them, and let the fury of your anger take hold on them.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Psalms

References

"... As was the case in Romans 10:19-21, so also here each passage plays an important role in shaping Paul’s reading of the other. By means of Isaiah’s (“spirit of stupor”), Paul transmutes Moses’ lament that God has not yet granted Israel an understanding heart into the much stronger claim that God has, in fact, directly caused Israel’s spiritual insensibility. (The wording “eyes such as do not see ... ears such as do not hear” may reflect Paul’s desire to connect this citation with the words of “David” that follow in Romans 11:9-10 (compare Romans 11:10 / Psalm 68:24 LXX) And it is Deuteronomy’s insistence that their blindness persists “to the present day” that gives Paul interpretive leverage to read the description of Isaiah’s opponents in Isaiah 29:10 as a diagnosis of his contemporaries’ failure to believe the gospel ..."
J. Ross Wagner, “Moses and Isaiah in Concert: Paul's Reading of Isaiah and Deuteronomy in the Letter to the Romans,” in "As Those Who Are Taught": The Interpretation of Isaiah from the LXX to the SBL, ed. Claire Mathews McGinnis and Patricia K. Tull, SymS 27 (Atlanta: SBL, 2006), 87–105.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Psalm 69:23 and LXX Psalms 68:24

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