Psalms 102:9

For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,

For I have eaten ashes like bread. The "For" introduces the ground upon which his enemies reproach him () - namely, his great misery, notwithstanding his piety. The enemies sneer at religion itself in the person of its suffering representative. "Ashes" represent mourning; they were cast upon the head in sorrow, while the mourner lay upon them: not that he literally ate them (; ). Jerusalem is thus represented sitting upon the ground (; ; ; ). The phrase is poetical, like (cf. ). So the parallel clause.

And mingled my drink with weeping - I do not intermit shedding tears even while I eat. As drinkers mingle water with their wine, so my tears fall into the cup out of which I drink.