Discovery BoxPsalms 69:17-21 
Context69:17 Do not ignore 1 your servant,
for I am in trouble! Answer me right away! 2
69:18 Come near me and redeem me! 3
Because of my enemies, rescue me!
69:19 You know how I am insulted, humiliated and disgraced;
you can see all my enemies. 4
69:20 Their insults are painful 5 and make me lose heart; 6
I look 7 for sympathy, but receive none, 8
for comforters, but find none.
69:21 They put bitter poison 9 into my food,
and to quench my thirst they give me vinegar to drink. 10
1 tn Heb “do not hide your face from.” The Hebrew idiom “hide the face” can (1) mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or (2) carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).
2 tn Or “quickly.”
3 tn Heb “come near my life and redeem it.” The verb “redeem” casts the
4 tn Heb “before you [are] all my enemies.”
5 tn Heb “break my heart.” The “heart” is viewed here as the origin of the psalmist’s emotions.
6 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.
7 tn Heb “wait.”
8 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.
9 tn According to BDB 912 s.v. II רֹאשׁ the term can mean “a bitter and poisonous plant.”
10 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.
