Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 69:21

"They gave me also gall for my food; And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." — Psalms 69:21 (ASV)

Gall. —Heb., rôsh, i.e., head. (Compare poppy heads. See Deuteronomy 32:32). In Hosea 10:4 it is translated hemlock, but is most probably the poppy (papaver arenarium), which grows everywhere in Palestine and answers all the conditions. The rendering, gall, comes from the Septuagint.

Vinegar. —Sour wine would not be rejected as unpalatable (see note on Ruth 2:14). It was forbidden to Nazarites as a luxury (Numbers 6:3). Was the author of the psalm possibly a Nazarite, or are the expressions in the psalm merely figurative? Compare.

“The banquet where the meats became
As wormwood.”

—TENNYSON: Elaine.