Zabur 69

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Lilies.” By Dawud.

1Save me, God,
For the waters have come up to my neck!
2I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold.
I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3I am weary with my crying.
My throat is dry.
My eyes fail, looking for my God.

4Those who hate me without a cause1 
Are more than the hairs of my head.
Those who want to cut me off,
Being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty.
I have to restore what I didn’t take away.

5God, you know my foolishness.
My sins aren’t hidden from you.
6Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame through me, Lord YAHWEH All-Powerful.
Do not let those who seek you be brought to dishonour through me, God of Israel.
7Because for your sake, I have borne reproach.
Shame has covered my face.
8I have become a stranger to my brothers,
An alien to my mother’s children.
9Zeal for your house has consumed me.2
The reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen on me.3
10When I wept and I fasted,
That was to my reproach.
11When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them.
12Those who sit in the gate talk about me.
I am the song of the drunkards.

13But as for me, my prayer is to you,
YAHWEH, in an acceptable time.
God, in the abundance of your loving kindness,
Answer me in the truth of your salvation.
14Deliver me out of the mire,
And do not let me sink.
Let me be delivered from those who hate me,
And out of the deep waters.
15Do not let the flood waters overwhelm me,
Neither let the deep swallow me up.
Do not let the pit shut its mouth on me.

16Answer me, YAHWEH, for your loving kindness is good.
According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.
17Do not hide your face from your servant,
For I am in distress.
Answer me speedily!
18Draw near to my soul, and redeem it.
Ransom me because of my enemies.

19You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonour.
My adversaries are all before you.
20Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;
For comforters, but I found none.
21They also gave me gall for my food.4
In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.5

22Let their table become a snare before them.
May it become a retribution and a trap.
23Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see.
Let their backs be bent forever.6
24Pour out your indignation on them.
Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
25Let their home be made desolate.
Let no one dwell in their tents.7
26For they persecute him whom you have wounded.
They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
27Charge them with crime upon crime.
Do not let them come into your righteousness.
28Let them be blotted out of the Book of Life,
And not be written with the righteous.

29But I am in pain and distress.
Let your salvation, God, protect me.
30I will praise God’s Name with a song,
And will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31It will please YAHWEH better than an ox,
Or a bull that has horns and hoofs.
32The humble have seen it, and are glad.
You who seek after God, let your heart live.
33For YAHWEH hears the needy,
And does not despise his captive people.

34Let heaven and earth praise him;
The seas, and everything that moves therein!
35For God will save Al-Quds,8 and build the cities of Judah.
They shall settle there, and own it.
36The children also of his servants shall inherit it.
Those who love his Name shall dwell therein.

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  1. 69:4 Cited in the Injil by ‘ISA AL-MASIH in John 15:24-25, “If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now have they seen and also hated both me and my Father. But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their Taurat, ‘They hated me without a cause.'” ↩︎
  2. 69:9 Applied to ‘ISA AL-MASIH in the Injil, John 2:15-17, when he cleared the Jerusalem Temple of money-changers and salespeople, “He made a whip of cords, and threw all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew their tables. To those who sold the doves, he said, ‘Take these things out of here! Do not make my Father’s house a marketplace!’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house has consumed me.'” ↩︎
  3. 69:9 Quoted in the Injil in Romans 15:2-3, “Let each one of us please his neighbour for that which is good, to be building him up. For even AL-MASIH didn’t please himself. But, as it is written, ‘The reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen on me.‘” ↩︎
  4. 69:21 Fulfilled when soldiers offered gall to ‘ISA AL-MASIH when he was being crucified, Injil, Matthew 27:34, “They gave him sour wine to drink mixed with gall. When he had tasted it, he would not drink.” ↩︎
  5. 69:21 Fulfilled when ‘ISA AL-MASIH spoke of being thirsty as he was dying on the cross, Injil, John 19:28-30, “After this, ‘ISA, seeing that all things were now finished, that Al-Kitab might be fulfilled, said, ‘I am thirsty.’ Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth. When ‘ISA therefore had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished.’ He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.” ↩︎
  6. 69:22-23 Quoted in the Injil in Romans 11:9-10, “Dawud says, ‘Let their table become a snare, and a trap, A stumbling block, and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see. Let their backs be bent forever.'” ↩︎
  7. 69:25 Applied to Judas who betrayed ‘ISA AL-MASIH in the Injil, Acts 1:16, “Brothers, it was necessary that this Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of Dawud concerning Judas, who was guide to those who took ‘ISA,” and then quoted in Acts 1:20, “For it is written in the Book of Zabur, ‘Let his home be made desolate, Let no one dwell in it.'” ↩︎
  8. 69:35 Al-Quds, meaning “the Holy (City).” The Hebrew text reads Zion, a synonym for Jerusalem. It originally referred to Mount Zion, one of the hills of Jerusalem. ↩︎