Psalms, 74

1. [Poem Of Asaph] God, why have you finally rejected us, your anger blazing against the flock you used to pasture?

1. <Maschil of Asaph.> O God, why hast thou cast [us] off for ever? [why] doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

2. Remember the people you took to yourself long ago, your own tribe which you redeemed, and this Mount Zion where you came to live.

2. Remember thy congregation, [which] thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, [which] thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

3. Come up to these endless ruins! The enemy have sacked everything in the sanctuary;

3. Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; [even] all [that] the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

4. your opponents made uproar in the place of assemblies, they fixed their emblems over the entrance, emblems

4. Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns [for] signs.

5. never known before. Their axes deep in the wood,

5. [A man] was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.

6. hacking at the panels, they battered them down with axe and pick;

6. But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.

7. they set fire to your sanctuary, profanely rased to the ground the dwelling-place of your name.

7. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled [by casting down] the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.

8. They said to themselves, 'Let us crush them at one stroke!' They burned down every sacred shrine in the land.

8. They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.

9. We see no signs, no prophet any more, and none of us knows how long it will last.

9. We see not our signs: [there is] no more any prophet: neither [is there] among us any that knoweth how long.

10. How much longer, God, will the enemy blaspheme? Is the enemy to insult your name for ever?

10. O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?

11. Why hold back your hand, keep your right hand hidden in the folds of your robe?

11. Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck [it] out of thy bosom.

12. Yet, God, my king from the first, author of saving acts throughout the earth,

12. For God [is] my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

13. by your power you split the sea in two, and smashed the heads of the monsters on the waters.

13. Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.

14. You crushed Leviathan's heads, gave him as food to the wild animals.

14. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, [and] gavest him [to be] meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

15. You released the springs and brooks, and turned primordial rivers into dry land.

15. Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.

16. Yours is the day and yours the night, you caused sun and light to exist,

16. The day [is] thine, the night also [is] thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.

17. you fixed all the boundaries of the earth, you created summer and winter.

17. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.

18. Remember, Yahweh, the enemy's blasphemy, a foolish people insults your name.

18. Remember this, [that] the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and [that] the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.

19. Do not surrender your turtledove to the beast; do not forget for ever the life of your oppressed people.

19. O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude [of the wicked]: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.

20. Look to the covenant! All the hiding-places of the land are full, haunts of violence.

20. Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

21. Do not let the downtrodden retreat in confusion, give the poor and needy cause to praise your name.

21. O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.

22. Arise, God, champion your own cause, remember how fools blaspheme you all day long!

22. Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.

23. Do not forget the shouting of your enemies, the ever-mounting uproar of your adversaries.

23. Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually.