Psalm 69:25

Psalm 69:25, in plain English

Let their homes become empty ruins where no one wants to live—let them lose what they once thought was permanently theirs.

Why it's here

A person's tent or home represented security, family, and legacy. To ask that it become deserted is to ask that their entire world collapse, that they lose the very thing that made them feel safe. For an ancient reader, this would hit hard.

Who's speaking

The psalmist, asking God to undo everything his enemies have built.

Where it sits in the story

The Bible often connects losing your home with losing God's blessing. This isn't casual—it's spiritual language for complete abandonment by God. It's what exile meant to Israel.

The scholarly reading

The curse extends to the enemies' very habitation: may their dwelling places be abandoned and empty.

Language and setting

In ancient Near Eastern thought, a man's house—his משְׁכָן (mishkan, dwelling)—was the locus of his covenant with God and the inheritance he would pass to his descendants. To curse the dwelling is to sever the perpetual line of blessing and stability. The desolation of the 'tent' (אֹהֶל, ohel) evokes nomadic imagery, suggesting the enemies will be stripped even of the fundamental security of shelter. This curse reaches toward annihilation not merely of the individual but of his posterity and legacy.

Voice

The psalmist, continuing his imprecatory appeal.

Significance

This theme of desolate dwelling places appears as divine judgment throughout Scripture—the waste places left after God's judgment (Isaiah 49:19), the emptying of Jerusalem before exile. In Acts 1:20, Peter applies Psalm 69:25 to Judas's betrayal, suggesting that the fate of the traitor aligns with the psalmist's prophecy, thus drawing a parallel between the psalmist's enemies and those who reject Christ.

23May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.

24Pour out Your wrath upon them, and let Your burning anger overtake them.

25May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents.

26For they persecute the one You struck and recount the pain of those You wounded.

27Add iniquity to their iniquity; let them not share in Your righteousness.

Read all of Psalm 69 — David is drowning — literally and figuratively. The waters have come up to my neck. A psalm of desperation that Jesus made His own.