¶Disgrace has broken my heart, and I am so sick. And I waited for sympathy, but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none.
Parallel translations
- WEB Reproach 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.
- KJV Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
- BSB Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found no one.
- NKJV Reproach has broken my heart, And I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none.
- NLT Their insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. If only one person would show some pity; if only one would turn and comfort me.
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
Reproach has broken David's heart and left him in despair, finding no one to comfort him. It expresses the crushing loneliness of unrelieved suffering.
Overview
David's heart is shattered by reproach, and he searches in vain for pity or comforters. The depth of isolation here is profound. This verse strikingly anticipates Christ in Gethsemane and at the cross, abandoned and uncomforted by men, who endured the loneliness of bearing our sin so that we would never be left without the Comforter.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Isa 63:5I looked, and there was no one to help; and I wondered that there was no one to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my own wrath upheld me.
- Job 16:2“I have heard many such things. You are all miserable comforters!
- Ps 142:4Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.
- Mark 14:50They all left him, and fled.
- Matt 26:56But all this has happened, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him, and fled.
- John 16:32Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
- John 12:27“Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But for this cause I came to this time.
- 2 Tim 4:16–17At my first defense, no one came to help me, but all left me. May it not be held against them.
- Matt 26:37–38He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled.
- Heb 11:36Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.
- Mark 14:37He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you watch one hour?
- Ps 123:4Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud.
- Ps 42:6My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
- Job 19:21–22“Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; for the hand of God has touched me.
- Ps 42:10As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 69:20 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.