To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David

1 O God of my praise! be not silent;

2 For the mouth of the ungodly man, and the mouth of deceit upon me are opened; They have talked with me with a tongue of guile:

3 And with words of hatred they have encompassed me, And have fought against me without a cause.

4 [In return] for my love they have been my adversaries; But I set myself to prayer.

5 And they have requited me evil for good, And hatred for my love.

6 Set thou over him an ungodly man; And let the adversary stand at his right hand.

7 When he is judged let him go forth condemned, [374] And let his prayer be turned into sin.

8 Let his days be few; His office let another receive.

9 Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow.

10 And in wandering let his children wander and beg, [375] And seek [for bread] out of their waste places. [376]

11 Catch let the extortioner all which he hath, And let strangers plunder his labor.

12 Let there be none prolonging mercy to him; And let there be none to have compassion upon his orphans.

13 Let his posterity be destroyed; [377] In the generation following let their name be blotted out.

14 Remembered let be the iniquity of his fathers before Jehovah; And the wickedness [378] of his mother let it not be blotted out.

15 Let them be before Jehovah continually, And let him blot out from the earth their memorial;

16 Because he remembered not to do mercy, And persecuted the man [that was] wretched and poor, And afflicted in heart, to put him to death.

17 He loved cursing, and let it come upon him: He delighted not in blessing, and let it be far from him.

18 And let him be clothed with cursing as with a garment; And let it come as water into his entrails, And as oil into his bones.

19 Let it be to him as a mantle to cover him, And as a girdle with which continually he may gird himself

20 Let this be the recompense [379] of my adversaries from Jehovah, And of those who speak evil against my soul.

21 But thou, O Jehovah, my Lord! deal thou with me for the sake of thy name: Because good is thy mercy, deliver me;

22 For poor and needy I am, And my heart is wounded within me.

23 As a shadow when it declineth, I walk about; I am shaken off as the locust.

24 My knees are become feeble through fasting; And my flesh hath fallen away from its fatness.

25 But I am become a reproach to them; When they see me they shake their head.

26 Help me, O Jehovah, my God! Save me according to thy mercy.

27 And they shall know that this is thy hand, That thou, O Jehovah! hast done it.

28 They shall curse, but thou shalt bless; When they rise up they shall be put to shame; But thy servant shall rejoice.

29 Clothed shall be my adversaries with disgrace, And they shall be covered as with a garment with their own shame.

30 I will praise Jehovah greatly with my mouth; And in the midst of the great I will celebrate him:

31 Because he standeth at the right hand of the poor one, To save from condemnations his soul.

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Footnotes:

[374] Literally, "wicked" or "ungodly."

[375] In the French version it is -- "And let his children be vagabonds and beg."

[376] In the French version it is -- "And seek [for bread] going out of their waste or ruined dwellings."

[377] Literally, "be to destruction."

[378] In the French version it is "sin."

[379] Literally, "work."