Psalms 69:13–21, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Psalms 69:13–21
Flooded lament, zeal, reproach, and severe curses: Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion
Within Psalms 69:13–21, the individual voice carries the movement “Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion” as part of “Flooded lament, zeal, reproach, and severe curses.” Its lament-imprecation form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why this sits here
Psalms 69:13–21 answers or redirects “Sinking lament and public reproach” within Psalm 69 by carrying “Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion.” The turn from “They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards” to “But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in…” explains why this movement occurs here.
What helps us understand it
How this passage works
Psalms 69:13–21Psalms 69:13–21 is the complete poetic movement “Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion”; its individual voice, parallel lines, images, and rhetorical turn control any use of an individual verse.
The unit opens “But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in…” and closes “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
Later material that clarifies it
Psalms 69:22–29Psalms 69:22–29 intensifies this unit's “Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion” by carrying “Imprecations and the afflicted speaker's plea” within the same psalm.
This unit ends “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink,” and the following movement opens “Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let….”
Place in the book
Psalms as a wholePsalms 69:13–21 belongs to Book II. Korahite, Asaphite, and Davidic collections move through exile-like longing, royal hope, communal crisis, and a prayer for just rule. This unit contributes the movement “Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion” within Psalm 69.
The received sequence places Psalms 69:13–21 inside Psalms 42–72; this unit opens “But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in…” and closes “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” The unit's reviewed main point is: Within Psalms 69:13–21, the individual voice carries the movement “Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion” as part of “Flooded lament, zeal, reproach, and severe curses.” Its lament-imprecation form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Psalms 69:13–21 opens with “But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in…” and closes with “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Those endpoints show how the individual voice carries “Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion.”
How the passage moves
Identify the individual voice, address, and parallel lines in Psalms 69:13–21; do not make every “I”, “we,” king, enemy, or worshiper interchangeable.
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: New Testament reuse is extensive, but the psalm first voices an Israelite sufferer; imprecations are not authorization for revenge, antisemitism, or targeting opponents.
What remains true
Wrong and rage may be named honestly before the LORD, yet judgment remains accountable to justice and never turns another person into disposable prey.
How this should shape us
What response preserves the text's voice and the neighbor's safety?
Within “Flooded lament, zeal, reproach, and severe curses: Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion,” The opening line begins the movement “Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion.” A proportionate response is this: Name the actual harm behind “But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time”, seek protection and fair judgment, and refuse to enact the poem's anger against a critic, group, or imagined enemy.
Teach it back
Explain Psalms 69:13–21 in your own words. Name the poetic voice and movement, trace its place in Psalm 69 and Book II, identify one exact source control or uncertainty, and reject one use the passage does not authorize.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Voice, image, and parallel movement
Within Psalms 69:13–21, the individual voice carries the movement “Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion” as part of “Flooded lament, zeal, reproach, and severe curses.” Its lament-imprecation form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied. The opening clause “But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time” belongs to this complete movement.
Placement in Book II
Psalms 69:13–21 answers or redirects “Sinking lament and public reproach” within Psalm 69 by carrying “Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion.” The turn from “They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards” to “But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in…” explains why this movement occurs here.
Uncertainty and responsible limit
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: New Testament reuse is extensive, but the psalm first voices an Israelite sufferer; imprecations are not authorization for revenge, antisemitism, or targeting opponents.
What the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Recoverable setting and limits
Psalms 69:13–21 belongs to Israel's received Psalter and Book II. Its lament-imprecation form may preserve individual, communal, royal, sanctuary, wisdom, historical, or later liturgical voices. A heading or vivid scene can guide reception without proving one author, date, event, performance setting, or editorial stage.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
The psalm within Jewish Scripture and worship
Psalms 69:13–21 belongs first to the Jewish Psalter's Hebrew poetry, five-book arrangement, prayer, instruction, memory, and worship. Jewish use and interpretation are not a preliminary stage to be erased by later Christian reception.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Canonical relationships after the first horizon
lament, enemies, suffering, worship connect this movement with other psalms and wider biblical traditions only after Psalms 69:13–21's own voice and poetic work are established. Similar wording does not make every speaker, enemy, city, nation, king, or promise identical.
How certain? probableWhere careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do responsible readings differ?
Best judgment: New Testament reuse is extensive, but the psalm first voices an Israelite sufferer; imprecations are not authorization for revenge, antisemitism, or targeting opponents.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
Psalms 69:13–21 gives individual prayer and poetry a real place before the LORD while the five-book Psalter holds lament, praise, Torah, kingship, Zion, creation, history, and communal memory in conversation.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
Wrong and rage may be named honestly before the LORD, yet judgment remains accountable to justice and never turns another person into disposable prey.
How certain? probableCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: New Testament reuse is extensive, but the psalm first voices an Israelite sufferer; imprecations are not authorization for revenge, antisemitism, or targeting opponents.
A vivid line from Psalm 69 can be detached from poetic parallelism, voice, genre, the whole psalm, Book II, and later reception history.
Within Psalms 69:13–21, the individual voice carries the movement “Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion” as part of “Flooded lament, zeal, reproach, and severe curses.” Its lament-imprecation form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Wrong and rage may be named honestly before the LORD, yet judgment remains accountable to justice and never turns another person into disposable prey.
Petition for rescue and unanswered compassion remains meaningful without the rejected overreach.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Psalms 69:13–21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 69:13–21
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 69:13–21.
Official NET Bible Psalm 69 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 69:13–21
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Enter the Bible Psalms course, Introductory Issues: individual and communal lament, from lament to praise, and Bible in the World; applied to Psalms 69:13–21
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 69 for Psalms 69:13–21
Supports: Major historical, literary, covenantal, ethical, and reception approaches to curses and enemy language.
Simango and Krüger, 'An Overview of the Study of Imprecatory Psalms,' OTE 29.3 (2016), pp. 581–600, complete approach survey; applied to Psalms 69:13–21
Supports: Imprecation retained as difficult prayer and communal speech without converting violent wishes into commands or erasing Jewish reception.
deClaissé-Walford, 'Embracing the Psalter's imprecatory words,' Acta Theologica Suppl. 32 (2021), pp. 275–292, especially literary, liturgical, trauma, and ethical proposal; applied to Psalms 69:13–21
Supports: Communication safeguards against romanticizing, sensationalizing, diagnosing, blaming, or simplifying despair, isolation, death wishes, and severe loss; not exegesis.
WHO, Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023, quick guide p. xiii and dos and don'ts pp. 11–16; applied only to modern safety-aware presentation of Psalms 69:13–21
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 69:13–21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 69:13–21
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 69:13–21.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 69 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 69:13–21
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗modern scholarly book course
Psalms course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Fred Gaiser; revised by Nicholas Schaser
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, revised May 2024
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Psalms course, Introductory Issues: individual and communal lament, from lament to praise, and Bible in the World; applied to Psalms 69:13–21
Open the Enter the Bible Psalms course ↗ancient greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Psalms
Albert Pietersma
International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies; Oxford University Press, 2009
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
Exact location: NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 69 for Psalms 69:13–21
Open NETS Psalms ↗peer reviewed open access research overview
An Overview of the Study of Imprecatory Psalms: Reformed and Evangelical Approaches to the Interpretation of Imprecatory Psalms
Daniel Simango and P. Paul Krüger
Old Testament Essays 29.3, 2016
Supports: Major historical, literary, covenantal, ethical, and reception approaches to curses and enemy language.
Exact location: Simango and Krüger, 'An Overview of the Study of Imprecatory Psalms,' OTE 29.3 (2016), pp. 581–600, complete approach survey; applied to Psalms 69:13–21
Open the imprecatory-psalm overview ↗peer reviewed open access literary and ethical study
Embracing the Psalter's imprecatory words in the 21st century
Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford
Acta Theologica Supplementum 32, 2021
Supports: Imprecation retained as difficult prayer and communal speech without converting violent wishes into commands or erasing Jewish reception.
Exact location: deClaissé-Walford, 'Embracing the Psalter's imprecatory words,' Acta Theologica Suppl. 32 (2021), pp. 275–292, especially literary, liturgical, trauma, and ethical proposal; applied to Psalms 69:13–21
Open deClaissé-Walford on imprecation ↗public health communication guidance
Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023
World Health Organization
World Health Organization, 2023
Supports: Communication safeguards against romanticizing, sensationalizing, diagnosing, blaming, or simplifying despair, isolation, death wishes, and severe loss; not exegesis.
Exact location: WHO, Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023, quick guide p. xiii and dos and don'ts pp. 11–16; applied only to modern safety-aware presentation of Psalms 69:13–21
Open the WHO communication guide ↗