I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
- BSB I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
- NKJV I am weary with my crying; My throat is dry; My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
- NASB I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
- NLT I am exhausted from crying for help; my throat is parched. My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help 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 is exhausted from crying out, his throat parched and eyes failing as he waits for God. It shows the weariness of prolonged, unanswered prayer.
Overview
David describes the physical toll of persistent prayer: a worn-out voice, a dry throat, and failing eyes that strain to see God act. Even faithful waiting can be wearying. Christ too knew such anguish, and this verse encourages believers that growing tired while waiting on God is not faithlessness but part of the life of trusting prayer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 6:6I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
- Isa 38:14Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
- Ps 119:123Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness.
- Ps 119:82Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?
- Deut 28:32Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand:
- Ps 25:21Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.
- John 19:28After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
- Lam 2:11Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
- Heb 5:7Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
- Ps 22:15My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
- Ps 22:2O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
- Ps 39:7And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
- Job 11:20But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.
- Ps 13:1–3How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
- Ps 69:21They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
- Job 16:16My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 69:3 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.