Psalms 69:11
in Psalms 69I made sackcloth my clothing, and I was sport to them.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword unto them.
KJV
I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.
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This verse in Psalms 69
Commentary
8 notes on this verseI made sackcloth also my garment. This David did literally, but we have no reason to believe that Jesus did. In a spiritual sense he, as one filled with grief, was always a sackcloth wearer. And I became a proverb to them. He was ridiculed as "the man of sorrows, "quoted as "the acquaintance of grief." He might have said, "here I and sorrow sit." This which should have won him pity only earned him new and more general scorn.
This site's exposition
I wept and fasted
on Psalms 69:10-12
Weeping and fasting brought him reproach. Sackcloth made him a joke to them, and the men who sit at the gate mocked him while drunkards sang about him. Clarke marks the climb across the three verses, from private grief to public dress to open ridicule.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"And I have set sackcloth my garment" (ver. 11). Already before we have said something of the sackcloth, from whence there is this, "But I, when they were troubling Me, was covering myself with sackcloth, and was humbling My Soul in fasting. I have set sackcloth for My garment:" that is, have set against them My flesh, on which to spend their rage, I have concealed My divinity. "Sackcloth," because mortal the flesh was: in order that by sin He might condemn sin in the flesh. "And I have set sackcloth my garment: and I have been made to them for a parable," that is, for a derision. It is called a parable, whenever a comparison is made concerning some one, when he is evil spoken of. "So may this man perish," for example, "as that man did," is a parable: that is, a comparison and likeness in cursing. "I have been made to them," then, "for a parable."
A commentator
Philoxenus of Mabbug13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence · Written before 523.
proposed
And again David saith, "I have humbled my soul in fasting, and I have become unto them a reproach. I have made sackcloth my clothing, and I have become unto them a byword": and by this he teacheth us that he not only endured the …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
They laughed at him as a fool for mortifying himself thus; and even for this he became a proverb to them; they made him the common subject of their banter. We must not think it strange if we be ill spoken of for that which is well done, and in which we have reason to hope that we are accepted of God. Our Lord Jesus was stoned for his good works ( John x.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
I made sackcloth also my garment,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
I made sackcloth also my garment. This David did literally, but we have no reason to believe that Jesus did. In a spiritual sense he, as one filled with grief, was always a sackcloth wearer. And I became a proverb to them. He was ridiculed as "the man of sorrows, "quoted as "the acquaintance of grief." He might have said, "here I and sorrow sit." This which should have won him pity only earned him new and more general scorn. To interweave one's name into a mocking proverb is the highest stretch of malice, and to insult one's acts of devotion is to add profanity to cruelty.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I made sackcloth also my garment - I put on sackcloth. This was often done as expressive of grief and sorrow. See Psa 30:11, note; Psa 35:13, note. Compare Isa 22:12; Dan 9:3. In the case here referred to, this was an act of religion; an expression of penitence and humiliation. And I became a proverb to them - A jest; a subject of derision; a by-word. They ridiculed me for it. Compare 1Ki 9:7.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
the envy of Your house They saw the love that You showed us when Your house was still existing, and they envied me.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וָאֶתְּנָ֣ה | vaetenah | and I made ! | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| לְבוּשִׁ֣י | levushi | clothing my | H3830 → | 33 times |
| שָׂ֑ק | sak | sackcloth | H8242 → | 49 times |
| וָאֱהִ֖י | vaehi | and I became | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| לָהֶ֣ם | lahem | for them | ||
| לְמָשָֽׁל׃ | lemashal | <into> a byword | H4912 → | 39 times |
וָאֶתְּנָ֣הand I made !
vaetenahH5414 →2011 times
לְבוּשִׁ֣יclothing my
levushiH3830 →33 times
שָׂ֑קsackcloth
sakH8242 →49 times
וָאֱהִ֖יand I became
vaehiH1961 →3559 times
לָהֶ֣םfor them
lahem
לְמָשָֽׁל׃<into> a byword
lemashalH4912 →39 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Deuteronomy 28:37You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 24:9
I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 25:9
behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents,…
- 1 Kings 9:7–8
then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an…
- Jeremiah 24:9
Through
1 Kings 9:7then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an…
it leads to
- Psalms 44:14
You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 44:14
Through
Jeremiah 24:9I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 28:37
You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 29:18
I will pursue them with sword and famine and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth—a curse, a desolation, and an object of scorn and reproach among…
- Deuteronomy 28:37
Through
Isaiah 22:12On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
it leads to
- Micah 1:16
Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.
- Joel 1:13
Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the…
- Micah 1:16
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this chapter
About Psalms
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, On the Psalms, Psalm 69; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 3; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Philoxenus of Mabbug, 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence.