Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
Parallel Translations
-
Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
-
Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
-
(69-16) Let not the waterflood overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Psalms 69:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Revelation 12:15-16 The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon spewed out of his mouth.
- Psalms 16:10 For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
- Isaiah 43:1-2 But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you.
- Jonah 2:2-7 He said, “I called because of my affliction to Yahweh. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice. For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God. “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Yahweh. My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple.
- Acts 2:24 whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.
- Numbers 16:33-34 So they, and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol. The earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly. All Israel that were around them fled at their cry; for they said, “Lest the earth swallow us up!”
- Psalms 88:4-6 I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help, set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand. You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
- Psalms 124:4-5 then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul; then the proud waters would have gone over our soul.
- Acts 2:31 he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul wasn’t left in Hades, and his flesh didn’t see decay.
- Matthew 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (7 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 69:15 Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither…
Psa 69:15 Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
Ver. 15. Let not the waterflood overflow me] See Psa 69:1.
Read full note →
Let not the pit shut] Leave me not helpless and hopeless.
Vivere spe facias qui moriturus eram.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Let not the water flood overflow me,.... The enemy,…
Let not the water flood overflow me,.... The enemy, Satan, that came in like a flood upon him, with his whole posse of devils; or the wrath of God, which came upon him like a flood overwhelming him:
neither let the deep swallow me up: as Jonah by the whale, and Dathan and Abiram in the earth:
Read full note →
and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me; either the pit of hell; so the Targum interprets it: for Christ, when he endured the curses of the law, and the wrath of God, suffered the same for kind as the damned in hell; only the mouth of this pit could not be shut upon him, or he be continued under such wrath and curse: or else the pit of the grave, where his divine Father left him not, or suffered him to be so long in it as to see corruption; this pit was not shut upon him, but he was delivered out of it, and will die no more.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Let not the waterflood overflow me - The stream;…
Let not the waterflood overflow me - The stream; the volume of waters. The idea is that of a flood or stream rolling along, that threatened to drown him.
Neither let the deep swallow me up - The abyss; the deep waters.
Read full note →
And let not the pit shut her mouth upon me - In his anguish and distress he passes here from the idea of running streams, and deep waters, to that of a well, pit, or cavern - representing himself as “in” that pit, and praying that it might not be closed upon him, leaving him in darkness and in mire, from which he could not then escape. The general idea in all these expressions is the same - that of overwhelming calamities from which he prayed to be delivered.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15. The pit shut her mouth upon me—David had…
15. The pit shut her mouth upon me—David had used the figures of deep “waters” and of “mire” without bottom, and now he adds the horror of having the “mouth” of the “pit” into which he had sunk close upon him, thereby shutting out the last ray of hope. The allusion does not appear to be to Num_16:32. באר, (beer,) well, pit, may allude to the dangerous asphaltum pits, (Gen_14:10;) but as in David’s time such pits were rare, and not objects of common dread, we may take the word in its most common signification of well. Stanley says of the numerous vestiges of ancient wells in Palestine, that “they have a broad margin of masonry round the month, and often a stone filling up the orifice.” This covering the well’s mouth when a human person was within was a figure of burying alive, which the psalmist deprecated. See 2Sa_17:18-19
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) Pit.—Properly, well. A stone usually covered the wells…
(15) Pit.—Properly, well. A stone usually covered the wells (Gen_29:10), which explains the phrase, “shut her mouth.” Is this merely figurative; or have we here a reminiscence of some terrible crime, analogous to that of Cawnpore?
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Let not the waterflood overflew me, neither let the…
Let not the waterflood overflew me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. The reference is still to vers. 1, 2; and the prayer is for deliverance from the dangers and entanglements there spoken of.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 15. Let not the waterflood overflow me. He…
Ver. 15. Let not the waterflood overflow me. He continues to recapitulate the terms of his lament. He is willing to bear suffering, but entreats grace that it may not get the victory over him. He was heard in that he feared.
Neither let the deep swallow me up. As Jonah came forth again, so let me also arise from the abyss of woe; here also our Lord was heard, and so shall we be. Death itself must disgorge us.
Read full note →
Let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. When a great stone was rolled over the well, or pit, used as a dungeon, the prisoner was altogether enclosed, and forgotten like one on the oubliettes of the Bastille; this is an apt picture of the state of a man buried alive in grief and left without remedy; against this the great sufferer pleaded and was heard. He was baptised in agony but not drowned in it; the grave enclosed him, but before she could close her mouth he had burst his prison. It is said that truth lies in a well, but it is assuredly an open well, for it walks abroad in power; and so our great Substitute in the pit of woe and death was yet the Conqueror of death and hell. How appropriately may many of us use this prayer. We deserve to be swept away as with a flood, to be drowned in our sins, to be shut up in hell; let us, then, plead the merits of our Saviour, lest these things happen unto us.
Ver. 15. Faith in God giveth hope to be helped, and is half a deliverance before the full deliverance come; for the psalmist is now with his head above water, and not so afraid as when he began the Psalm. David Dickson.
Ver. 15. The pit. According to Dean Stanley, the word Beer here used is always rendered "well, "except in this and three other cases. When such wells no longer yielded a full supply of water they were used as prisons, no care being taken to cleanse out the mire remaining at the bottom. The Dean also tells us in the Appendix to his "Sinai and Palestine, "that "they have a broad margin of masonry round this mouth, and often a stone filling up the orifice." The rolling of this stone over the mouth of the well was the well's "shutting her mouth; "and the poor prisoner was, to all intents and purposes, buried alive. C. H. S.
Ver. 15. (last clause). A tremendous evil, our desert of it, our hope against it, our fear of it, and the reasons which secure us against it.
Psalms 69:16*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.