Read
Psalm 69:23
Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.
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.
25Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents.
Notice
Darkened eyes and bent backs confront the reader with a severe plea for judgment, following the speaker’s account of poison for food and vinegar for thirst.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What changes in your reading of this plea when you begin with the poison and vinegar?
Write on thisWhat is hardest for you to face in the request for darkened eyes and bent backs?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 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
Mark 8:18Having eyes, don’t you see? Having ears, don’t you hear? Don’t you remember?Both passages speak of eyes that do not see, though Mark questions the hearers while the psalm asks for judgment.
Romans 11:10Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Always keep their backs bent.”Romans repeats the psalm’s request for darkened eyes and bent backs, preserving both images of judgment.
Daniel 5:6Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.The connection is limited to bodily distress: the psalm requests bent backs, while Daniel describes the king’s trembling knees.
Isaiah 6:9–10He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’Both passages connect eyes with failed sight, though Isaiah speaks of seeing without perceiving and the psalm asks for darkened eyes.
Psalm 102:17He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.Both passages concern prayer from distress; Psalm 69 asks for judgment, while Psalm 102 speaks of God hearing the destitute.
2 Corinthians 3:14But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away.Darkened eyes and hardened minds share the language of blocked perception, though the psalm also asks for bent backs.
Isaiah 21:3–4Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so dismayed …Both passages join bodily suffering with inability to see; Isaiah describes his own distress, while the psalm requests suffering for others.
Acts 28:26–27saying, ‘Go to this people and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way perceive.Both passages speak of failed sight, though Acts describes seeing without perceiving and the psalm asks that eyes be darkened.
Jeremiah 30:6Ask now, and see whether a man travails with child. Why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned pale?The shared thread is bodily distress: bent backs in the psalm and men clutching their waists with pale faces in Jeremiah.
Isaiah 29:10For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.The psalm asks God to darken eyes, while Isaiah describes the LORD closing eyes in an act of judgment.
Matthew 13:14–15In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, ‘By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way …Both passages speak of failed sight; Matthew quotes Isaiah about seeing without perceiving, while the psalm asks for darkened eyes.
Deuteronomy 28:65–67Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD will give you there a trembling heart, failing of …Both passages include failing sight within judgment, alongside bodily burdens described as bent backs in the psalm and lack of rest in Deuteronomy.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The cruelty named here reaches God in a plea for severe judgment. These words entrust the case to him; they authorize no harm by your hand.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 69:23. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
Keep goingPsalm 69 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms
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).