1. SAVE ME, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck [they threaten my life].
2. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overwhelm me.
3. I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; my eyes fail with waiting [hopefully] for my God.
4. Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would cut me off and destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are many and mighty. I am [forced] to restore what I did not steal. [John 15:25.]
5. O God, You know my folly and blundering; my sins and my guilt are not hidden from You.
6. Let not those who wait and hope and look for You, O Lord of hosts, be put to shame through me; let not those who seek and inquire for and require You [as their vital necessity] be brought to confusion and dishonor through me, O God of Israel.
7. Because for Your sake I have borne taunt and reproach; confusion and shame have covered my face.
8. I have become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to my mother's children. [John 7:3-5.]
9. For zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches and insults of those who reproach and insult You have fallen upon me. [John 2:17; Rom. 15:3.]
10. When I wept and humbled myself with fasting, I was jeered at and humiliated;
11. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword (an object of scorn) to them.
12. They who sit in [the city's] gate talk about me, and I am the song of the drunkards.