69 Save me, God,
    for the waters have come up to my neck!
² I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold.
    I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
³ I am weary with my crying.
    My throat is dry.
    My eyes fail looking for my God.
⁴ Those who hate me without a cause 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.
⁵ God, you know my foolishness.
    My sins aren’t hidden from you.
⁶ Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Armies.
    Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.
⁷ Because for your sake, I have borne reproach.
    Shame has covered my face.
⁸ I have become a stranger to my brothers,
    an alien to my mother’s children.
⁹ For the zeal of your house consumes me.
    The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
¹⁰ When I wept and I fasted,
    that was to my reproach.
¹¹ When I made sackcloth my clothing,
    I became a byword to them.
¹² Those who sit in the gate talk about me.
    I am the song of the drunkards.
¹³ But 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.
¹⁴ Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink.
    Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
¹⁵ Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me,
    neither let the deep swallow me up.
    Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
¹⁶ Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good.
    According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.
¹⁷ Don’t hide your face from your servant,
    for I am in distress.
    Answer me speedily!
¹⁸ Draw near to my soul and redeem it.
    Ransom me because of my enemies.
¹⁹ You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor.
    My adversaries are all before you.
²⁰ Reproach 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.
²¹ They also gave me poison for my food.
    In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
²² Let their table before them become a snare.
    May it become a retribution and a trap.
²³ Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see.
    Let their backs be continually bent.
²⁴ Pour out your indignation on them.
    Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
²⁵ Let their habitation be desolate.
    Let no one dwell in their tents.
²⁶ For they persecute him whom you have wounded.
    They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
²⁷ Charge them with crime upon crime.
    Don’t let them come into your righteousness.
²⁸ Let them be blotted out of the book of life,
    and not be written with the righteous.
²⁹ But I am in pain and distress.
    Let your salvation, God, protect me.
³⁰ I will praise the name of God with a song,
    and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
³¹ It will please Yahweh better than an ox,
    or a bull that has horns and hoofs.
³² The humble have seen it, and are glad.
    You who seek after God, let your heart live.
³³ For Yahweh hears the needy,
    and doesn’t despise his captive people.
³⁴ Let heaven and earth praise him;
    the seas, and everything that moves therein!
³⁵ For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah.
    They shall settle there, and own it.
³⁶ The children also of his servants shall inherit it.
    Those who love his name shall dwell therein.