Bible Strands
Psalms 69:21
They poisoned my food with gall and gave me vinegar to quench my thirst.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks to God, recounting a specific act of torment by his enemies. He has just said he sought comforters and found none (69:20); this verse is the concrete detail of what was done to him.
The words — רֹאשׁ (rosh) means "poison," a lethal substance, not merely bitterness; it is mixed into food deliberately. חֹמֶץ (chometz) is "vinegar" or "sour wine," the same word that appears in the passion narratives.
The thread — The Gospels apply this verse to the crucifixion: Matthew 27:34, Mark 15:23, and Luke 23:36 each record enemies offering Jesus a drink he refused or that was sour wine.
Why it lands — The verse resists abstraction; it holds the reader to the concrete—poison in food, vinegar instead of water. It asks the reader to notice that the cruelty is not random but targeted: the thing offered is the wrong thing, given at the exact moment of need.
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
King James Version
They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Cross-references
- Matthew 27:34 they offered Him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, He refused to drink it.
- Luke 23:36 The soldiers also mocked Him and came up to offer Him sour wine.
- Mark 15:23 There they offered Him wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it.
- Matthew 27:48 One of them quickly ran and brought a sponge. He filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed, and held it up for Jesus to drink.
- Mark 15:36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine. He put it on a reed and held it up for Jesus to drink, saying, “Leave Him alone. Let us see if Elijah comes to take Him down.”
- John 19:28 After this, knowing that everything had now been accomplished, and to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
- Jeremiah 9:15 Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
- Jeremiah 8:14 Why are we just sitting here? Gather together, let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 29:18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit,
- Jeremiah 23:15 Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets: “I will feed them wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”