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Psalm 69:21
They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
19You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you.
20Reproach 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.
21They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
22Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.
23Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.
Notice
Poison for food and vinegar for thirst turn basic needs into occasions for cruelty, after the speaker has searched for comfort and found none.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What do the food and drink reveal about the kind of harm the speaker describes?
Write on thisWhen, if ever, has an offer of help added to your hurt?
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Where else Scripture says this
11 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
John 19:28After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty!”Thirst is explicit in both passages; John also says Jesus spoke so that Scripture might be fulfilled.
Matthew 27:34they gave him sour wine to drink mixed with gall. When he had tasted it, he would not drink.Both passages describe a drink given to a sufferer: vinegar in the psalm, sour wine mixed with gall in Matthew.
Luke 23:36The soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar,Vinegar appears in both accounts, with the psalm describing cruelty and Luke naming the soldiers’ mockery of Jesus.
Mark 15:23They offered him wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he didn’t take it.Both mention a drink offered to a sufferer, though Mark names wine mixed with myrrh and records Jesus’ refusal.
Matthew 27:48Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave him a drink.Both describe vinegar given as a drink; Matthew specifies a sponge filled with vinegar and placed on a reed.
Mark 15:36One ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Let him be. Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him …Vinegar is given to the sufferer in both passages; Mark also records the onlookers’ words about Elijah.
Jeremiah 9:15Therefore the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.Both describe harmful food or drink, though Jeremiah names God’s judgment while the psalm describes what adversaries have done.
Psalm 22:15My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.Both laments describe bodily distress through thirst: one names vinegar given to drink, the other a tongue stuck against the mouth.
Jeremiah 8:14“Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves! Let’s enter into the fortified cities, and let’s be silent there; for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and …Poison appears in both passages, but Jeremiah’s speakers connect their poisoned water with sin against God; this verse makes no such claim.
Jeremiah 23:15Therefore the LORD of Armies says concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink poisoned water; for from the prophets …Both describe harmful provisions; Jeremiah names poisoned water as God’s judgment on the prophets, while the psalm names poison given by adversaries.
Psalm 69:3I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God.The dry throat earlier in the same lament connects with the thirst here, where the speaker receives vinegar to drink.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. broken friendship. church hurt.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The speaker tells God what was done to him without softening it. In the surrounding lament, even this cruelty stands before the God who knows his dishonor.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 69:21. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).