Psalms 69:23 · Bible study
Psalms 69:23 Commentary: Imprecation and Divine Justice
Hebrew · 9 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Psalm 69:23's imprecatory curse, its meaning in context, Paul's citation, and how Christians can understand cries for justice.
Research Summary
- Meaning: A plea for God to bring judicial blindness and weakness upon enemies who reject His anointed.
- Key words: “eyes darkened”, spiritual insensitivity; “backs bent”, loss of strength and dignity (loins shaking in some translations).
- Main debate: Whether imprecatory psalms are appropriate for Christian prayer or are prophetic declarations of judgment fulfilled in the New Testament.
- Theological theme: Divine justice, covenant curses, and the hardening that follows persistent rejection of God’s messenger.
- Best use: As a sobering study in God’s justice and the fulfillment of prophecy, not as a model for personal prayer.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.
WEB World English Bible 2000
Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.
KJV King James Version 1769
Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see; And make their loins continually to shake.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
Darkened are their eyes from seeing, And their loins continually shake Thou.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not, and make their loins continually to shake.
Translations in other languages (9 available)
Sean oscurecidos sus ojos para ver, y haz siempre titubear sus lomos.
Sejam escurecidos os olhos deles, para que não possam ver; e que seus quadris vacilem continuamente.
Que leur table soit pour eux un piège,
Ihre Augen müssen finster werden, daß sie nicht sehen, und ihre Lenden laß immer wanken.
Hun tafel worde voor hun aangezicht tot een strik, en tot volle vergelding tot een valstrik.
Gli occhi loro si oscurino, sì che non veggano più, e fa’ loro del continuo vacillare i lombi.
Niechajże im będzie stół ich przed nimi sidłem, a szczęście ich na upadek.
願他們的眼睛 昏矇，不得看見；願你使他們的腰 常常 戰抖。
Let their eyes be blind so that they may not see; let their bodies for ever be shaking.
Verse in Context
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that this verse is part of a larger imprecatory passage in a psalm with strong prophetic and typological dimensions. Barnes notes it is a prayer for recompense that ‘cannot be proved to be uttered in a malignant spirit.’ Matthew Henry explicitly calls the imprecations ‘prophecies of the destruction of Christ’s persecutors,’ a view reinforced by Paul’s quotation in Romans 11:9-10. Gill emphasizes that the darkened eyes are figurative of spiritual blindness, the enemies’ minds were hardened so they could not recognize the Messiah. Calvin, while uncertain of the psalm’s historical background, affirms its application to Christ as the true sufferer. The consensus is that the verse is a cry for God to execute justice, not a license for personal vengeance, and that its New Testament use binds it to the mystery of Israel’s hardening and the gospel’s expansion to the Gentiles.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Prophetic prediction: Matthew Henry and the NT citation in Romans 11; the psalmist speaks of future judgment on Christ’s enemies.
- Prayer for recompense: Barnes notes it cannot be proven to be malignant; it is a plea for justice in a situation of intense personal suffering.
- Typological anticipation: Calvin sees David as a type of Christ; the imprecations prefigure the judgment on all who oppose God’s kingdom.
What is clear: The verse expresses a plea for God to act in judgment against persistent enemies of God’s anointed, and it is quoted in the New Testament as a description of spiritual blindness and weakness.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Historical setting | The psalm originates from David’s experience of being persecuted by enemies who hate without cause. | Whether the specific enemies are Saul’s court or Absalom’s rebels, both are plausible from the commentary tradition. |
| Canonical interpretation | The New Testament quotes these verses as referring to the rejection of Christ by the Jewish leaders and the consequent hardening. | Whether the original meaning was predictive prophecy (Matthew Henry) or merely illustrative language reused by Paul for his argument. |
| Imprecations and Christian ethics | The psalms express deep emotion and trust in God’s justice, not personal malice. | Whether believers today may utter similar prayers, or whether the New Covenant emphasis on forgiveness (Matthew 5:44) supersedes such language. |
| Nature of the judgment | The ‘darkened eyes’ refer to spiritual blindness (Gill, Wesley), not physical blindness. | Whether this is a permanent decree of reprobation or a temporary disciplinary hardening that serves the wider mercy of God (Romans 11:11-12). |
Historical & Cultural Context
Psalm 69 belongs to a group of laments traditionally attributed to David, though the exact historical occasion is uncertain, some citing his persecution under Saul, others the rebellion of Absalom. The psalm is remarkably saturated in New Testament quotations, with verses 4, 9, 21, 22-23, and 25 all reappearing in the Gospels, Acts, and Paul’s letters. Verse 21, ‘they gave me vinegar to drink,’ is directly applied to Jesus’ crucifixion (Matthew 27:34,48; John 19:28-29), making the entire psalm a lens through which early Christians understood the suffering Messiah.
Verse 23 follows the table-as-snare image of verse 22. In the ancient Near East, the table was a symbol of fellowship and security; to turn it into a trap was a complete reversal of trust. The petition for darkened eyes draws on a deep biblical tradition. Isaiah 6:9-10 pictures God’s judgment as blinding a people who have already closed their eyes. Deuteronomy 28:65 promises ‘a trembling heart, failing of eyes’ as a covenant curse. The second line, ‘backs be continually bent’, pictures a people bowed under an impossible burden, weak and unable to rise. The KJV and ASV render ‘loins continually to shake,’ capturing the physical terror that accompanies God’s judgment.
This imprecatory section (verses 22-28) has often troubled readers, especially when set beside Jesus’ command to love enemies. Yet historically, the psalmist saw himself as standing in God’s cause; his enemies were not merely personal foes but opponents of God’s purposes (verse 9: ‘zeal for your house has consumed me’). The imprecations function as an appeal to the divine Judge, not a personal curse. When Paul cites these very words in Romans 11, he applies them to a people who have stumbled over the cornerstone; the hardening that followed was both just and, in Paul’s argument, temporary, designed to open mercy to the Gentiles.
Textual Notes
The Hebrew text of Psalm 69:23 is stable across the Masoretic tradition; the consulted sources note no significant variants. The difference in English translations, ‘backs be continually bent’ (WEB, BSB) versus ‘loins continually to shake’ (KJV, ASV, Darby), reflects uncertainty in rendering the Hebrew word for ‘loins’ and the verb that can mean either ‘shake’ or ‘bend.’ Paul’s citation in Romans 11:10 uses ‘bow down their back always,’ which follows the general sense of the Hebrew. The textual tradition itself is not in dispute.
Reception History
Early Christian interpretation, beginning with Paul’s quotation in Romans 11:9-10, fixed this verse in the context of Israel’s hardening during the apostolic age. By the Reformation, commentators such as Calvin and Matthew Henry read the imprecations as prophetic of the judgment that fell on the Jewish nation in AD 70. Matthew Henry calls them ‘prophecies of the destruction of Christ’s persecutors.’ Later Protestant exegetes like Barnes softened this, seeing a general prayer for divine justice. In modern scholarship, the imprecatory psalms are often studied as honest expressions of suffering that release anger to God, while the Christological application remains a key point for evangelical interpreters.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- Context of innocent suffering. The psalmist’s enemies returned evil for good, took his food, and gave him vinegar in his thirst (Ps 69:19-21). The cry for justice arises from real, undeserved pain.
- Cry for divine justice. Verse 23 asks God to do what only God can do: judge the proud, blind the willfully blind, and bend the backs of those who refuse to bend in repentance.
- Christological fulfillment. The New Testament does not sidestep the imprecations. Paul applies them to the hardening of Israel (Rom 11:9-10). Jesus himself, the ultimate sufferer of the psalm, wept over Jerusalem’s coming judgment (Luke 19:41-44).
Five-point outline
- The sufferer’s isolation. Verses 19-20: no comforter found.
- The enemies’ cruelty. Verse 21: poison and vinegar.
- God’s justice invoked. Verses 22-23: table to snare, eyes darkened, backs bent.
- The tension with the new covenant. Jesus commands forgiveness, yet the same Jesus pronounces woe. The imprecations are a surrender of vengeance to the only just Judge.
- The hope beyond judgment. Verse 29: ‘I am poor and sorrowful; let Your salvation set me up on high.’ Justice is not the final word, salvation is.
Illustration hooks
- A victim of fraud cries out not for revenge but for the truth to come out. The psalmist’s prayer is like that: ‘Let justice roll down.’
- A parent whose child is harmed by a careless driver may whisper, ‘Lord, they need to face the consequences.’ The Bible gives language for that raw honesty.
- The parable of the tenants (Matthew 21:33-44) who killed the son: judgment came not because the owner was petty, but because their rebellion had a limit. Psalm 69:23 describes that limit.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Is it okay to pray for bad things to happen to my enemies?
- How can the same verse be a curse in the psalm and a prophecy in Romans?
- Does God still blind people today, or is this only for ancient Israel?
Leading a Discussion
Psalm 69:23 sits at the center of one of the Bible’s most difficult areas: the imprecatory psalms. Before your group reads the verse aloud, remind them that the psalmist is speaking out of intense suffering and trust in God’s justice, not personal hatred. The goal is not to imitate the prayer but to understand what it reveals about God and the gospel.
Discussion questions
- Read Psalm 69:19-23. What do the surrounding verses tell you about the psalmist’s emotional state? What has driven him to this point?
- The psalmist asks for eyes to be darkened and backs to be bent. What do these images communicate about the kind of judgment he is calling for? (Consider the cross-references: Deuteronomy 28:65, Isaiah 6:9-10.)
- Paul quotes verses 22-23 in Romans 11:9-10, applying them to Israel’s rejection of Christ. Why do you think Paul felt free to use a curse as a description of God’s sovereign work?
- How does the fact that this same psalm contains verse 21 (vinegar) and verse 9 (zeal for God’s house) shape the way you view the imprecations? Does it make them more or less disturbing?
- Some Christians say imprecatory psalms are no longer appropriate to pray since Jesus taught us to love our enemies. Others say they give us an honest vocabulary for anger. What biblical data supports each view? (Consider Romans 12:19, Matthew 5:43-44.)
- Why would the psalmist immediately contrast the judgment section (vv.22-28) with a statement of personal need and praise (vv.29-30)? What does that sequence teach about the heart of the believer?
- How might this verse prepare us to understand the severity of God’s judgment, and thereby deepen our appreciation for the grace available through Christ?
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Deuteronomy 28:65 | Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul. |
| Deuteronomy 28:67 | In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” for the fear of your heart which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see. |
| Isaiah 6:9 | He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ |
| Isaiah 6:10 | Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.” |
| Isaiah 21:3 | Therefore 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 that I can’t see. |
| Isaiah 21:4 | My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me. |
| Isaiah 29:9 | Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. |
| Isaiah 29:10 | For Yahweh 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. |
Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
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What the Commentators Say
8 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes focuses on the exact correspondence between sin and punishment: because they refused food to the hungry, the prayer asks that their own table become a trap. He sees this as a call for recompense in the same area where they sinned, not a malicious curse but a desire for justice.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin reads Psalm 69 as a prophecy of Christ, not just a record of David's suffering. He points out that the New Testament quotes it at least seven times, showing that David, rejected and persecuted, was a clear type of the coming Messiah.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The commentary insists that the imprecations in this passage are the Psalmist’s own words, not those of his enemies, since the pronouns remain consistent from the preceding verse. It also notes that “their habitation” should be read as “their encampment,” a nomad term reflecting Israel’s heritage, and that total family destruction was the worst Oriental terror.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
Let their eyes be blinded that they see not: and make their loynes alway to tremble.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill distinguishes literal physical eyes from the understanding, arguing that the blindness is judicial: Israel could not recognize Christ as Messiah despite fulfilled prophecies and miracles. He interprets the shaking loins as both a weakening of strength against enemies and a future terror when they see the one they pierced.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
continually to shake —literally, "to swerve" or bend in weakness.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Matthew Henry reads these strong verses not as David's personal imprecations but as prophecies of judgment on the Jewish nation for rejecting Christ, fulfilled about forty years after His death. He points to the apostle Paul's use of the first two verses in Romans 11 to argue that the destruction of the temple and the Mosaic order was God's decisive vindication of the gospel and the setting aside of the ceremonial law.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley distinguishes the eyes of the mind from physical eyes. Those who willingly close their eyes to the truth will be judicially blinded by God. He interprets "shake" as God removing their strength, leaving them powerless.