PSALM 69:1-16

For the lead player, on shoshanim, for David.

Rescue me, God,
for the waters have come up to my neck.
I have sunk in the slime of the deep,
and there is no place to stand.
I have entered the watery depths,
and the current has swept me away.
I am exhausted from my calling out.
My throat is hoarse.
My eyes fail from hoping for my God.
More numerous than the hairs of my head
are my unprovoked foes.
My destroyers grow strong,
my lying foes.
What I have not stolen
should I then give back?
God, You know my folly,
and my guilt is not hidden from You.
Let not those who hope for You be shamed through me.
Master, O LORD of Armies.
Let those who seek You
be not disgraced through me, God of Israel.
Because for You I have borne reproach,
disgrace has covered my face.
Estranged I have been from my brothers,
and an alien to my mother’s sons.
For the zeal of Your house has consumed me,
the reproach of Your reproachers has fallen on me.
And in fasting I wept for my being—
it became a reproach for me.
I made sackcloth my garment
and became for them a byword.
I was the talk of those who sit in the gate,
the drunkards’ taunting song.
But I–may my prayer to You, O LORD,
come in a favorable hour.
God, as befits Your great kindness,
answer me with Your steadfast rescue.
Save me from the mire, that I not drown.
Let me be saved from my foes
and from the watery depths.
Let the waters’ current not sweep me away
and let not the deep swallow me,
and let the Pit not close its mouth on me.

Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (Vol. Three-Volume Set) . W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

Under water