Psalms, 69

To the director on The Lilies.^*1 Of David.

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

² I have sunk down in deep mire, where there is no standing ground. I have come into profound waters, And a flowing stream^*1 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,^*1 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^*1 they gave [me] a poisonous plant,^*2 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,^*1 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^*1 with song, And I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

³¹ This will also be more pleasing to Jehovah^*1 than a bull, Than a young bull displaying horns, splitting the hoof.

³³ For Jehovah is listening to the poor ones, And he will indeed not despise his very own prisoners.^*1

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.^*1

³⁶ And the offspring^*1 of his servants themselves will inherit it, And those loving his name will be the ones to reside in it.