I have become estranged from my brothers, And a stranger to my mother’s sons.
Parallel translations
- WEB I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.
- KJV I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.
- BSB I have become a stranger to my brothers and a foreigner to my mother’s sons,
- NKJV I have become a stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mother’s children;
- NLT Even my own brothers pretend they don’t know me; they treat me like a stranger.
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 has become an estranged stranger even to his own family. It laments the isolation that faithfulness can bring.
Overview
David's devotion has alienated him even from his brothers and his mother's children. Such rejection by one's own is deeply painful. This too was fulfilled in Christ, whose own brothers did not believe in him during his ministry (John 7:5), so that the faithful sufferer of the psalm prefigures the rejected Messiah.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 31:11Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, A fear to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
- John 1:11He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him.
- John 7:5For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.
- Matt 10:35–36For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
- Ps 38:11My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.
- Mic 7:5–6Don’t trust in a neighbor. Don’t put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, be careful of the words of your mouth!
- Matt 26:70–74But he denied it before them all, saying, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
- 1 Sam 17:28Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger burned against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride, and the naughtiness of your heart; for you have come down that you might see the battle.”
- Isa 53:3He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
- Job 19:13–19“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
- Matt 10:21–22“Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.
- Matt 26:56But all this has happened, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him, and fled.
- Matt 26:48–50Now he who betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, “Whoever I kiss, he is the one. Seize him.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 69:8 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.