Discovery BoxPsalms 69:10-12 
Context69:10 I weep and refrain from eating food, 1
which causes others to insult me. 2
69:11 I wear sackcloth
and they ridicule me. 3
69:12 Those who sit at the city gate gossip about me;
drunkards mock me in their songs. 4
Psalms 69:19-20
Context69:19 You know how I am insulted, humiliated and disgraced;
you can see all my enemies. 5
69:20 Their insults are painful 6 and make me lose heart; 7
I look 8 for sympathy, but receive none, 9
for comforters, but find none.
1 sn Fasting was a practice of mourners. By refraining from normal activities such as eating food, the mourner demonstrated the sincerity of his sorrow.
2 tn Heb “and it becomes insults to me.”
3 tn Heb “and I am an object of ridicule to them.”
4 tn Heb “the mocking songs of the drinkers of beer.”
5 tn Heb “before you [are] all my enemies.”
6 tn Heb “break my heart.” The “heart” is viewed here as the origin of the psalmist’s emotions.
7 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.
8 tn Heb “wait.”
9 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.
