(This is a translation of Psalm 69 from the Hebrew text. The translation notes are over 20 pages long, so I decided not to post them also. )

Save me, God!

The water has come to my throat.

Down I sink, down in the miry deep.

–There is nowhere to stand.

I slip into the deep

The waters rush over me.

I grow weak from shouting

Hoarse with screams

My eyes fail

–Waiting, hoping for you my God.

I have more enemies than hairs on my head.

Without cause, mighty ones crush me;

Enemies of a lie:

What I did not steal, that I must return.

You God know my foolishness

My guilt hides not from you.

May those who wait on my Lord YHWH of Hosts

Be not disgraced for me;

May those who seek you suffer no shame

Because of me, God of Israel.

Reproach falls on me, because of you;

Shame covers my face.

A stranger I have become to my brothers,

I am unknown to my mother’s sons.

Yet zeal for your house consumes me,

The reproach of your reproach falls upon me.

Even my soul wept and fasted

Still it was reproach to me.

When I dress in sackcloth

I will be their song.

They speak of me, sitting in the gate

And sing of me sitting with their beer.

But me, my prayer is to you

            YHWH at an acceptable time

            God in the fullness of your mercy

                        Answer me in the truth of your salvation.

Rescue me from the mire

Do not let me sink;

Save me from enemies

Even from the depths of waters.

Do not let me sink beneath the flood of waters

Do not let me drown in the deep

Do not let the pit close its mouth over me.

Answer me YHWH, for your steadfast love is good

For the sake of your great mercy, turn to me.

Do not hide your face from your servant

Oh I am in distress

–Make haste to answer me.

Come near to my life, redeem;

Because of my enemies, ransom me.

You, you know my reproach

My shame, my humiliation is before you

–Even all my enemies.

Reproach has broken my heart

I am sick

I waited for pity, but there was none;

And for comforters I did not find.

They gave me poison for food;

For my thirst they gave me sour wine.

Turn their table to a trap

Let their safety be a snare.

Let darkness be their sight when seeing,

Cause their legs to always shudder

Pour your curse over them

Send to them your furious wrath

Let their camp be devastated

In their tents let no one dwell.

For him you struck

            They chased

And the sorrow of him you wound

            They wrote it down.

Lay guilt on their guilt

Keep them from your righteousness.

Erase them from the rolls of living

With the righteous, do not write them down.

But me, I am afflicted, sore sorrowful

–Yet your salvation, O God, will raise me to a save place.

I will praise the name of God in song

Making great my God in thankful song.

For it will please YHWH more than an ox

Or bull with horns and hoofs.

The afflicted will see; they will rejoice

You seeking God – let your hearts live.

For God hears the destitute

And his captives he does not despise.

Praise him heaven and earth

Waters and all that swarm in them.

For God saves Zion

And will build the cities of Judah

And they will settle there and possess it

The children of his servants will inherit

 

And those who love his name will dwell there.