Matthew 27:34 states, 'They gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall,' while Mark 15:23 states, 'And they gave him to drink, wine mingled with myrrh.'

'Gall' is a general term for anything that is bitter. The Hebrew behind the Psalm word can mean poison, but also meant gall or hemlock. Myrrh was a bitter substance. Looking at the original Greek word used by Matthew, chole, it's used in one other place in the NT, Acts 8:23: 'For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.' It is manifestly used in both verses in a non-technical sense of something generally bitter.

Why did Matthew use this general word rather than the specific 'myrrh'? Two reasons are possible. First, because he already used the word in 2:11 to refer to a gift, and something pleasant, and did not want to invoke a contrary association. Second, Matthew was probably engaging in a bit of typological midrash here, as he used the same word that is found in the LXX version of Psalms 69:21: 'They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.'