Psalms 69:20

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.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The psalmist addresses God, recounting his isolation after listing his reproach, shame, and disgrace before the divine court (Psalms 69:19). He speaks at a moment of acute loneliness, immediately preceding his description of enemies poisoning his food (Psalms 69:21).

The words — חֶרְפָּה (cherpah) denotes "reproach" or "insult," while שָׁבַר (shavar) means "to break," showing how external contempt fractures the psalmist’s inner life. אָנוּשׁ (anush) conveys physical or emotional sickness, and לָנוּד (lanud) refers to the act of showing sympathy or seeking refuge.

The thread — The motif of abandoned searching appears in Isaiah 63:5, where God notes no helper exists, and in Psalm 142:4, where the psalmist finds no refuge or care. Job 16:2 later echoes the theme of failed comforters, though with a different tone.

Why it lands — The text demands recognition that human empathy often fails, leaving the speaker to confront isolation without consolation. It asks the reader to acknowledge the reality of unmet longing before seeking divine or communal resolution.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

חֶרְפָּ֤ה׀cher.Pahreproach שָֽׁבְרָ֥הsha.ve.Rahit has broken לִבִּ֗יli.B/iheart/ my וָֽאָ֫נ֥וּשָׁהva./'A.Nu.sha/hand/ I have become sick/ !וָאֲקַוֶּ֣הva./'a.ka.Vehand/ I waited לָנ֣וּדla./Nudto/ show sympathy וָאַ֑יִןva./'A.yinand/ there not וְ֝לַמְנַחֲמִ֗יםve./la/m.na.cha.Mimand/ for <the>/ comforters וְלֹ֣אve./Lo'and/ not מָצָֽאתִי׃ma.Tza.tiI found [them]

King James Version

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.

Cross-references

Isaiah 63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled that no one assisted. So My arm brought Me salvation, and My own wrath upheld Me.
Job 16:2 “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all.
Psalms 142:4 Look to my right and see; no one attends to me. There is no refuge for me; no one cares for my soul.
Mark 14:50 Then everyone deserted Him and fled.
Matthew 26:56 But this has all happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled.
John 12:27 Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour.
John 16:32 “Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
2 Timothy 4:16 At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.
Job 19:21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
Psalms 42:6 O my God, my soul despairs within me. Therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon—even from Mount Mizar.