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Psalm 69:22
Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.
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.
24Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
Notice
After poison for food and vinegar for thirst, the sufferer asks for his enemies’ own table to become a trap, a stark prayer for retribution.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
How does the poison and vinegar in the preceding verse shape your reading of this prayer?
Write on thisWhat troubles you about the request that a table become a trap?
Write on thisWhat wrong would you want to bring before God without taking vengeance into your own hands?
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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
1 Thessalonians 5:3For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape.The table becoming a trap and destruction arriving amid claims of peace both portray security overturned by judgment.
Romans 11:8–10According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”Both passages speak of judgment, with the psalm asking for a trap and Romans describing God-given blindness.
Malachi 2:2If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name,” says the LORD of Armies, “then I will send the curse on you, and I …The psalm asks for a table to become a trap, while Malachi describes God turning blessings into a curse.
1 Peter 2:8and, “a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.” For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed.Both use images of danger in judgment: a snare in the psalm and a stumbling stone in Peter.
Proverbs 1:32For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them.A table becoming a trap and careless ease bringing destruction both connect familiar comfort with danger.
Isaiah 8:14–15He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a stumbling stone and a rock that makes them fall. For the people of Jerusalem, he will be a …Both passages use a trap and a snare to describe judgment, though Isaiah names God himself as the snare.
Isaiah 28:13Therefore the LORD’s word will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, …Being snared is the shared image: the psalm requests it, while Isaiah describes it among the effects of the LORD’s word.
Joshua 23:13know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no longer drive these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, a scourge …Both name a snare and a trap, with Joshua warning that the remaining nations will become these dangers.
Judges 4:17However Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of …The link is limited: Sisera seeks a place associated with peace, while the psalm asks for a table to become dangerous.
Deuteronomy 28:17Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.Both bring judgment into the setting of food, through a trapped table or a cursed basket and kneading trough.
Job 24:18“They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed on the earth. They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.Both describe judgment reaching what people possess: their table in the psalm and their portion on earth in Job.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The sufferer brings a plea for retribution to God. The prayer leaves the harm exposed, and God remains the one addressed as judge.
Now put it in your words.
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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).