For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,
Parallel translations
- WEB For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,
- BSB For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears
- NKJV For I have eaten ashes like bread, And mingled my drink with weeping,
- NASB For I have eaten ashes like bread, And mixed my drink with weeping
- NLT I eat ashes for food. My tears run down into my drink
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He eats ashes like bread and mingles his drink with tears. Sorrow has become his daily diet.
Overview
Ashes signify mourning and humiliation, and tears in his drink show ceaseless grief. The psalmist's very sustenance is marked by sorrow. Such language gives faithful expression to deep lament, holding nothing back from God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 42:3My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
- Ps 80:5Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.
- Job 3:24For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
- Isa 44:20He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?
- Mic 7:17They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.
- Mic 1:10Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.
- Ps 69:21They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
- Lam 3:48–49Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Lam 3:15–16He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 102:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.