Psalm 69:1-36
To the director on The Lilies.*+ Of David.
69 Save me, O God, for the waters have come clear to the soul.*+
2 I 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.+
3 I have become tired by my calling out;+My throat has become hoarse.My eyes have failed while waiting for my God.+
4 Those 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.
5 O God, you yourself have come to know my foolishness,And from you my own guiltiness has not been hidden.+
6 O 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.+
7 For on your account I have borne reproach,+Humiliation has covered my face.+
8 I have become one estranged to my brothers,+And a foreigner to the sons of my mother.+
9 For sheer zeal for your house has eaten me up,+And the very reproaches of those reproaching you have fallen upon me.+
10 And I proceeded to weep with the fasting of my soul,+But it came to be for reproaches to me.+
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,Then I became to them a proverbial saying.+
12 Those sitting in the gate began concerning themselves about me,+And [I was] the subject of the songs of drinkers of intoxicating liquor.+
13 But 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.+
14 Deliver me from the mire, that I may not sink down.+O may I be delivered from those hating me+ and from the deep waters.+
15 O may not the flowing stream of waters wash me away,+Nor the depth swallow me up,Nor the well close its mouth over me.+
16 Answer me, O Jehovah, for your loving-kindness is good.+According to the multitude of your mercies turn to me,+
17 And do not conceal your face from your servant.+Because I am in sore straits, answer me quickly.+
18 Do come near to my soul, reclaim it;+On account of my enemies redeem me.+
19 You yourself have come to know my reproach and my shame and my humiliation.+All those showing hostility to me are in front of you.+
20 Reproach 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.+
21 But for food* they gave [me] a poisonous plant,*+And for my thirst they tried to make me drink vinegar.+
22 Let their table before them become a trap,+And what is for their welfare a snare.+
23 Let their eyes become darkened so as not to see;+And cause their very hips to wobble constantly.+
24 Pour out upon them your denunciation,+And may your own burning anger overtake them.+
25 Let their walled camp become desolate;+In their tents may there come to be no dweller.+
26 For the one whom you yourself have struck they have pursued,+And the pains of those pierced by you they keep recounting.
27 Do give error upon their error,+And may they not come into your righteousness.+
28 Let them be wiped out of the book of the living ones,*+And with the righteous ones may they not be written in.+
29 But I am afflicted and aching.+May your own salvation, O God, protect me.+
30 I will praise the name of God* with song,+And I will magnify him with thanksgiving.+
31 This will also be more pleasing to Jehovah* than a bull,+Than a young bull displaying horns, splitting the hoof.+
32 The meek ones will certainly see [it]; they will rejoice.+YOU who are seeking God, let YOUR heart also keep alive.+
33 For Jehovah is listening to the poor ones,+And he will indeed not despise his very own prisoners.*+
34 Let heaven and earth praise him,+The seas and everything moving about in them.+
35 For God himself will save Zion+And will build the cities of Judah;+And they will certainly dwell there and take possession of it.*+
36 And the offspring* of his servants themselves will inherit it,+And those loving his name will be the ones to reside in it.+
Footnotes
^ See 45:Sup ftn, “Lilies.”
^ Or, “life.” Heb., naʹphesh; T(Aram.)Syr., naph·shaʼ; Gr., psy·khesʹ; Lat., aʹni·mam.
^ “And a flowing stream.” Heb., weshib·boʹleth.
^ “Jehovah.” Heb., Yehwahʹ; Fragment SymP. Vindob. G. 39777, the Tetragrammaton in archaic Heb. characters. See App 1C §9.
^ Or, “bread of consolation.”
^ Or, “they proceeded to put poison.”
^ Or, “book of life.”
^ “God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ. Fragment SymP. Vindob. G. 39777 has here “Jehovah God,” with the Tetragrammaton in archaic Heb. characters. See App 1C §9.
^ See App 1C §9.
^ Or, “those of his who are prisoners.”
^ “It,” fem., referring to the land.
^ Lit., “seed.”
