I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
Parallel translations
- WEB I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
- BSB I have sunk into the miry depths, where there is no footing; I have drifted into deep waters, where the flood engulfs me.
- NKJV I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me.
- NASB I have sunk in deep mud, and there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me.
- NLT Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire; I can’t find a foothold. I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm 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
David feels himself sinking in deep mire with no foothold, engulfed by floods. It vividly expresses the helplessness of overwhelming trouble.
Overview
Continuing the water imagery, David describes a sense of having no solid ground and being swept away by deep waters. The picture conveys utter helplessness apart from God's intervention. As a psalm pointing toward Christ, it anticipates the depths of suffering the Savior would endure to rescue us from sin.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 40:2He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
- Matt 7:25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
- Jer 38:6Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.
- Ps 88:6–7Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
- Ps 32:6For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.
- Jer 38:22And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah’s house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women shall say, Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back.
- Matt 26:37–38And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
- Gen 7:17–23And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
- Ezek 27:26–34Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.
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 69:2 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
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