Psalms 69:1–36

^{To the director on The Lilies. Of David.}

¹Save me, O God, for the waters have come clear to the soul.

²I have sunk down in deep mire, where there is no standing ground.
I have come into profound waters,
And a flowing stream itself has washed me away.

³I have become tired by my calling out;
My throat has become hoarse.
My eyes have failed while waiting for my God.

⁴Those hating me without a cause have become even more than the hairs of my head.
Those bringing me to silence, being my enemies for no reason, have become numerous.
What I had not taken by robbery I then proceeded to give back.

⁵O God, you yourself have come to know my foolishness,
And from you my own guiltiness has not been hidden.

⁶O may those hoping in you not be ashamed because of me,
O Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies.
O may those seeking you not be humiliated because of me,
O God of Israel.

⁷For on your account I have borne reproach,
Humiliation has covered my face.

⁸I have become one estranged to my brothers,
And a foreigner to the sons of my mother.

⁹For sheer zeal for your house has eaten me up,
And the very reproaches of those reproaching you have fallen upon me.

¹⁰And I proceeded to weep with the fasting of my soul,
But it came to be for reproaches to me.

¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing,
Then I became to them a proverbial saying.

¹²Those sitting in the gate began concerning themselves about me,
And [I was] the subject of the songs of drinkers of intoxicating liquor.

¹³But as for me, my prayer was to you, O Jehovah,
At an acceptable time, O God.
In the abundance of your loving‐kindness answer me with the truth of salvation by you.

¹⁴Deliver me from the mire, that I may not sink down.
O may I be delivered from those hating me and from the deep waters.

¹⁵O may not the flowing stream of waters wash me away,
Nor the depth swallow me up,
Nor the well close its mouth over me.

¹⁶Answer me, O Jehovah, for your loving‐kindness is good.
According to the multitude of your mercies turn to me,
¹⁷And do not conceal your face from your servant.
Because I am in sore straits, answer me quickly.

¹⁸Do come near to my soul, reclaim it;
On account of my enemies redeem me.

¹⁹You yourself have come to know my reproach and my shame and my humiliation.
All those showing hostility to me are in front of you.

²⁰Reproach itself has broken my heart, and [the wound] is incurable.
And I kept hoping for someone to show sympathy, but there was none;
And for comforters, but I found none.

²¹But for food they gave [me] a poisonous plant,
And for my thirst they tried to make me drink vinegar.

²²Let their table before them become a trap,
And what is for their welfare a snare.

²³Let their eyes become darkened so as not to see;
And cause their very hips to wobble constantly.

²⁴Pour out upon them your denunciation,
And may your own burning anger overtake them.

²⁵Let their walled camp become desolate;
In their tents may there come to be no dweller.

²⁶For the one whom you yourself have struck they have pursued,
And the pains of those pierced by you they keep recounting.

²⁷Do give error upon their error,
And may they not come into your righteousness.

²⁸Let them be wiped out of the book of the living ones,
And with the righteous ones may they not be written in.

²⁹But I am afflicted and aching.
May your own salvation, O God, protect me.

³⁰I will praise the name of God with song,
And I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

³¹This will also be more pleasing to Jehovah than a bull,
Than a young bull displaying horns, splitting the hoof.

³²The meek ones will certainly see [it]; they will rejoice.
YOU​ who are seeking God, let ​YOUR​ heart also keep alive.

³³For Jehovah is listening to the poor ones,
And he will indeed not despise his very own prisoners.

³⁴Let heaven and earth praise him,
The seas and everything moving about in them.

³⁵For God himself will save Zion
And will build the cities of Judah;
And they will certainly dwell there and take possession of it.

³⁶And the offspring of his servants themselves will inherit it,
And those loving his name will be the ones to reside in it.