Psalms 69:19
in Psalms 69You know my reproach, my shame and disgrace. All my adversaries are before You.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou knowest my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: Mine adversaries are all before thee.
KJV
Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.
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This verse in Psalms 69
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour. It is no novelty or secret, it has been long continued; thou, O God, hast seen it; and for thee to see the innocent suffer is an assurance of help. Here are three words piled up to express the Redeemer's keen sense of the contempt poured upon him; and his assurance that every form of malicious despite was observed of the Lord. Mine adversaries are all before thee.
This site's exposition
my shame and disgrace
on Psalms 69:19-20
Verse 19 tells God what God already knows, the reproach and the shame and the disgrace. Verse 20 says he looked for sympathy and for comforters and found no one. Barnes marks this as the psalm's low point.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"Thou knowest my reproach, and my confusion, and my shame" (ver. 19). What is reproach? What is confusion? What shame? Reproach is that which the enemy casteth in the teeth. Confusion is that which gnaweth the conscience. Shame is that which causeth even a noble brow to blush, because of the upbraiding with a pretended crime. There is no crime; or even if there is a crime, it doth not belong to him, against whom it is alleged: but yet the infirmity of the human mind ofttimes is made ashamed even when a pretended crime is alleged; not because it is alleged, but because it is believed. All these things are in the Body of the Lord. For confusion in Him could not be, in whom guilt was not found. There was alleged as a crime against Christians, the very fact that they were Christians. That indeed was glory: the brave gladly received it, and so received it as that they blushed not at all for the Lord's name. For fearlessness had covered the face of them, having the effrontery of Paul, saying, "for I blush not because of the Gospel: for the virtue of God it is for salvation to every one believing." O Paul, art not thou a venerator of the Crucified? Little it is, he saith, for me not to blush for it: nay, therein alone I glory, wherefore the enemy thinketh me to blush. "But from me far be it to glory, save in the Cross of Jesus Christ, through whom to me the world is crucified, and I to the world." At such a brow as this then reproach alone could be hurled. For neither could there be confusion in a conscience already made whole, nor shame in a brow so free. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
); thou knowest what sort of men they are, what danger I am in from them, what enemies they are to thee, and how much thou art reflected upon in what they do and design against me." One instance of their barbarity is given (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+odd-straight-quotes
Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour,....
And if at any time we be called out to suffer reproach, and shame, and dishonour, for his sake, this may be our comfort, that he knows it, and, as he is before-hand with us, so he will not be behind-hand with us.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour. It is no novelty or secret, it has been long continued; thou, O God, hast seen it; and for thee to see the innocent suffer is an assurance of help. Here are three words piled up to express the Redeemer's keen sense of the contempt poured upon him; and his assurance that every form of malicious despite was observed of the Lord. Mine adversaries are all before thee. The whole lewd and loud company is now present to thine eye: Judas and his treachery; Herod and his cunning; Caiaphas and his counsel; Pilate and his vacillation; Jews, priests, people, rulers, all, thou seest and wilt judge.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Thou hast known my reproach - This is one of the most forcible appeals to mercy and compassion that was ever made. The language of these two verses is inimitable; and the sentiment cannot be mended. I can devise no comment that would not lessen their effect.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thou hast known my reproach - The reproach that has come upon me; the shame and contempt which I am called to endure. God had seen all this; and the psalmist appeals to him as having seen it, as a reason why he should now interpose and save him. And my shame, and my dishonor - These are different words to express the same idea. They are accumulated here to denote the “greatness” of his distress. In other words, shame and reproach bad come upon him in every possible form. Mine adversaries are all before thee - All who persecute and oppose me are constantly in thine eye. Thou knowest who they are; thou seest all that they do. Nothing in their conduct is concealed from thee. God, therefore, could take an accurate view of his troubles, and could see all the reasons which existed for interfering in his behalf.
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַתָּ֤ה | ʾatah | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| יָדַ֗עְתָּ | yada'ta | you know | H3045 → | 945 times |
| חֶרְפָּתִ֣י | cherpati | reproach my | H2781 → | 73 times |
| וּ֭בָשְׁתִּי | uvasheti | and shame my | H1322 → | 30 times |
| וּכְלִמָּתִ֑י | ukhelimati | and ignominy my | H3639 → | 30 times |
| נֶ֝גְדְּךָ֗ | negdekha | [are] before you | H5048 → | 151 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| צוֹרְרָֽי׃ | tzorai | opposers my | H6887 → | 54 times |
אַתָּ֤הyou
ʾatahH859 →1094 times
יָדַ֗עְתָּyou know
yada'taH3045 →945 times
חֶרְפָּתִ֣יreproach my
cherpatiH2781 →73 times
וּ֭בָשְׁתִּיand shame my
uvashetiH1322 →30 times
וּכְלִמָּתִ֑יand ignominy my
ukhelimatiH3639 →30 times
נֶ֝גְדְּךָ֗[are] before you
negdekhaH5048 →151 times
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
צוֹרְרָֽי׃opposers my
tzoraiH6887 →54 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
Hebrews 12:2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand…
it leads to
- Micah 7:7
But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.
- 1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,
- 1 Peter 2:23–24
When they heaped abuse on Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats, but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.
- Hebrews 1:3
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the…
- Philippians 1:6
being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
- Micah 7:7
Through
Isaiah 53:3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
it leads to
- John 1:10–11
He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.
- Matthew 26:67
Then they spit in His face and struck Him. Others slapped Him
- John 1:10–11
Through
1 Peter 2:23When they heaped abuse on Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats, but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.
it leads to
- Isaiah 53:7
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not…
- Isaiah 53:7
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; 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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.