Psalms 69:3

69:3 I am exhausted from shouting for help;

my throat is sore; ¹ 

my eyes grow tired of looking for my God. ² 

Psalms 69:21

69:21 They put bitter poison ³  into my food,

and to quench my thirst they give me vinegar to drink. ⁴ 

Job 29:10

29:10 the voices of the nobles fell silent, ⁵ 

and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.

Lamentations 4:4

ד (Dalet)

4:4 The infant’s tongue sticks

to the roof of its mouth due to thirst;

little children beg for bread, ⁶ 

but no one gives them even a morsel. ⁷ 

John 19:28

Jesus’ Death

19:28 After this Jesus, realizing that by this time ⁸  everything was completed, ⁹  said (in order to fulfill the scripture), ¹⁰  “I am thirsty!” ¹¹ 

[69:3]  ¹ tn Or perhaps “raw”; Heb “burned; enflamed.”

[69:3]  ² tn Heb “my eyes fail from waiting for my God.” The psalmist has intently kept his eyes open, looking for God to intervene, but now his eyes are watery and bloodshot, impairing his vision.

[69:21]  ³ tn According to BDB 912 s.v. II רֹאשׁ the term can mean “a bitter and poisonous plant.”

[69:21]  ⁴ 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.

[29:10]  ⁵ tn The verb here is “hidden” as well as in v. 8. But this is a strange expression for voices. Several argue that the word was erroneously inserted from 8a and needs to be emended. But the word “hide” can have extended meanings of “withdraw; be quiet; silent” (see Gen 31:27). A. Guillaume relates the Arabic habi’a, “the fire dies out,” applying the idea of “silent” only to v. 10 (it is a form of repetition of words with different senses, called jinas). The point here is that whatever conversation was going on would become silent or hushed to hear what Job had to say.

[4:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “bread.” The term “bread” might function as a synecdoche of specific (= bread) for general (= food); however, the following parallel line does indeed focus on the act of breaking bread in two.

[4:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “there is not a divider to them.” The term פָּרַשׂ (paras), Qal active participle ms from פָּרַס (paras, “to divide”) refers to the action of breaking bread in two before giving it to a person to eat (Isa 58:7; Jer 16:7; Lam 4:4). The form פָּרַשׂ (paras) is the alternate spelling of the more common פָּרַס (paras).

[19:28]  ⁸ tn Or “that already.”

[19:28]  ⁹ tn Or “finished,” “accomplished”; Grk “fulfilled.”

[19:28]  ¹⁰ sn A reference to Ps 69:21 or Ps 22:15.

[19:28]  ¹¹ sn In order to fulfill (τελειωθῇ [teleiwqh], a wordplay on the previous statement that everything was completed [τετέλεσται, tetelestai]) the scripture, he said, “I am thirsty.” The scripture referred to is probably Ps 69:21, “They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Also suggested, however, is Ps 22:15, “My tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth, and you [God] lay me in the dust of death.” Ps 22:1 reads “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?,” a statement Jesus makes from the cross in both Matt 27:46 and Mark 15:34. In light of the connection in the Fourth Gospel between thirst and the living water which Jesus offers, it is highly ironic that here Jesus himself, the source of that living water, expresses his thirst. And since 7:39 associates the living water with the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ statement here in 19:28 amounts to an admission that at this point he has been forsaken by God (cf. Ps 22:1, Matt 27:46, and Mark 15:34).