Text -- Psalms 69:18-36 (NET)

69:18 Come near me and redeem me! Because of my enemies, rescue me! 69:19 You know how I am insulted, humiliated and disgraced; you can see all my enemies. 69:20 Their insults are painful and make me lose heart; I look for sympathy, but receive none, for comforters, but find none. 69:21 They put bitter poison into my food, and to quench my thirst they give me vinegar to drink. 69:22 May their dining table become a trap before them! May it be a snare for that group of friends! 69:23 May their eyes be blinded! Make them shake violently! 69:24 Pour out your judgment on them! May your raging anger overtake them! 69:25 May their camp become desolate, their tents uninhabited! 69:26 For they harass the one whom you discipline; they spread the news about the suffering of those whom you punish. 69:27 Hold them accountable for all their sins! Do not vindicate them! 69:28 May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living! Do not let their names be listed with the godly! 69:29 I am oppressed and suffering! O God, deliver and protect me! 69:30 I will sing praises to God’s name! I will magnify him as I give him thanks! 69:31 That will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hooves. 69:32 The oppressed look on– let them rejoice! You who seek God, may you be encouraged! 69:33 For the Lord listens to the needy; he does not despise his captive people. 69:34 Let the heavens and the earth praise him, along with the seas and everything that swims in them! 69:35 For God will deliver Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah, and his people will again live in them and possess Zion. 69:36 The descendants of his servants will inherit it, and those who are loyal to him will live in it.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 69:18

¹ tn Heb “come near my life and redeem it.” The verb “redeem” casts the Lord in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis (see Ps 19:14).

NET Notes: Psa 69:19

¹ tn Heb “before you [are] all my enemies.”

NET Notes: Psa 69:20

¹ tn Heb “break my heart.” The “heart” is viewed here as the origin of the psalmist’s emotions.

² tn The verb form appears to be a Qal preterite from an otherwise unattested root נוּשׁ (nush), which some consider an alternate form of אָנַשׁ (’anash, “be weak; be sick”; see BDB 60 s.v. I אָנַשׁ). Perhaps the form should be emended to a Niphal, וָאֵאָנְשָׁה (va’e’onshah, “and I am sick”). The Niphal of אָנַשׁ occurs in 2 Sam 12:15, where it is used to describe David’s sick child.

³ tn Heb “wait.”

⁴ tn Heb “and I wait for sympathy, but there is none.” The form נוּד (nud) is an infinitive functioning as a verbal noun:, “sympathizing.” Some suggest emending the form to a participle נָד (nad, “one who shows sympathy”). The verb נוּד (nud) also has the nuance “show sympathy” in Job 2:11; 42:11 and Isa 51:19.

NET Notes: Psa 69:21

¹ tn According to BDB 912 s.v. II רֹאשׁ the term can mean “a bitter and poisonous plant.”

² sn John 19:28-30 appears to understand Jesus’ experience on the cross as a fulfillment of this passage (or Ps 22:15). See the study note on the word “thirsty” in John 19:28.

NET Notes: Psa 69:22

¹ tc Heb “and to the friends for a snare.” The plural of שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) is used in Ps 55:20 of one’s “friends.” If the reading of the MT is retained here, the term depicts the psalmist’s enemies as a close-knit group of friends who are bound together by their hatred for the psalmist. Some prefer to revocalize the text as וּלְשִׁלּוּמִים (ulÿshillumim, “and for retribution”). In this case the noun stands parallel to פַּח (pakh, “trap”) and מוֹקֵשׁ (moqesh, “snare”), and one might translate, “may their dining table become a trap before them, [a means of] retribution and a snare” (cf. NIV).

NET Notes: Psa 69:23

¹ tn Heb “may their eyes be darkened from seeing.”

² tn Heb “make their hips shake continually.”

NET Notes: Psa 69:24

¹ tn Heb “anger.” “Anger” here refers metonymically to divine judgment, which is the practical effect of God’s anger.

² tn Heb “the rage of your anger.” The phrase “rage of your anger” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971), 17-81.

NET Notes: Psa 69:25

¹ tn Heb “in their tents may there not be one who dwells.”

sn In Acts 1:20 Peter applies the language of this verse to Judas’ experience. By changing the pronouns from plural to singular, he is able to apply the ancient curse, pronounced against the psalmist’s enemies, to Judas in particular.

NET Notes: Psa 69:26

¹ tn Or “persecute”; Heb “chase.”

² tn Heb “for you, the one whom you strike, they chase.”

³ tn Heb “they announce the pain of your wounded ones” (i.e., “the ones whom you wounded,” as the parallel line makes clear).

sn The psalmist is innocent of the false charges made by his enemies (v. 4), but he is also aware of his sinfulness (v. 5) and admits that he experiences divine discipline (v. 26) despite his devotion to God (v. 9). Here he laments that his enemies take advantage of such divine discipline by harassing and slandering him. They “kick him while he’s down,” as the expression goes.

NET Notes: Psa 69:27

¹ tn Heb “place sin upon their sin.”

² tn Heb “let them not come into your vindication.”

NET Notes: Psa 69:28

¹ tn Heb “let them be wiped out of the scroll of the living.”

sn The phrase the scroll of the living occurs only here in the OT. It pictures a scroll or census list containing the names of the citizens of a community. When an individual died, that person’s name was removed from the list. So this curse is a very vivid way of asking that the enemies die.

² tn Heb “and with the godly let them not be written.”

sn Do not let their names be listed with the godly. This curse pictures a scroll in which God records the names of his loyal followers. The psalmist makes the point that his enemies have no right to be included in this list of the godly.

NET Notes: Psa 69:29

¹ tn Heb “your deliverance, O God, may it protect me.”

NET Notes: Psa 69:30

¹ tn Heb “I will praise the name of God with a song.”

² tn Heb “I will magnify him with thanks.”

NET Notes: Psa 69:32

¹ sn You who seek God refers to those who seek to have a relationship with God by obeying and worshiping him (see Ps 53:2).

² tn Heb “may your heart[s] live.” See Ps 22:26.

NET Notes: Psa 69:33

¹ tn Heb “his prisoners he does not despise.”

NET Notes: Psa 69:35

¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (God’s people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix probably refers to “Zion” (see Pss 48:12; 102:14); thus the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Psa 69:36

¹ tn Heb “the lovers of his name.” The phrase refers to those who are loyal to God (cf. v. 35). See Pss 5:11; 119:132; Isa 56:6.

² sn Verses 35-36 appear to be an addition to the psalm from the time of the exile. The earlier lament reflects an individual’s situation, while these verses seem to reflect a communal application of it.