Psalms, 69

1. [For the choirmaster Tune: 'Lilies . . .' Of David] Save me, God, for the waters have closed in on my very being.

1. <To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, [A Psalm] of David.> Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto [my] soul.

2. I am sinking in the deepest swamp and there is no firm ground. I have stepped into deep water and the waves are washing over me.

2. I sink in deep mire, where [there is] no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

3. I am exhausted with calling out, my throat is hoarse, my eyes are worn out with searching for my God.

3. I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

4. More numerous than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without reason. Those who seek to get rid of me are powerful, my treacherous enemies. (Must I give back what I have never stolen?)

4. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, [being] mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored [that] which I took not away.

5. God, you know how foolish I am, my offences are not hidden from you.

5. O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.

6. Those who hope in you must not be made fools of, Yahweh Sabaoth, because of me! Those who seek you must not be disgraced, God of Israel, because of me!

6. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.

7. It is for you I bear insults, my face is covered with shame,

7. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

8. I am estranged from my brothers, alienated from my own mother's sons;

8. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.

9. for I am eaten up with zeal for your house, and insults directed against you fall on me.

9. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

10. I mortify myself with fasting, and find myself insulted for it,

10. When I wept, [and chastened] my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.

11. I dress myself in sackcloth and become their laughing-stock,

11. I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.

12. the gossip of people sitting at the gate, and the theme of drunkards' songs.

12. They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I [was] the song of the drunkards.

13. And so, I pray to you, Yahweh, at the time of your favour; in your faithful love answer me, in the constancy of your saving power.

13. But as for me, my prayer [is] unto thee, O LORD, [in] an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

14. Rescue me from the mire before I sink in; so I shall be saved from those who hate me, from the watery depths.

14. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

15. Let not the waves wash over me, nor the deep swallow me up, nor the pit close its mouth on me.

15. Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

16. Answer me, Yahweh, for your faithful love is generous; in your tenderness turn towards me;

16. Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness [is] good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

17. do not turn away from your servant, be quick to answer me, for I am in trouble.

17. And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.

18. Come to my side, redeem me, ransom me because of my enemies.

18. Draw nigh unto my soul, [and] redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.

19. You know well the insults, the shame and disgrace I endure. Every one of my oppressors is known to you.

19. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries [are] all before thee.

20. Insult has broken my heart past cure. I hoped for sympathy, but in vain, for consolers -- not one to be found.

20. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked [for some] to take pity, but [there was] none; and for comforters, but I found none.

21. To eat they gave me poison, to drink, vinegar when I was thirsty.

21. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

22. May their own table prove a trap for them, and their abundance a snare;

22. Let their table become a snare before them: and [that which should have been] for [their] welfare, [let it become] a trap.

23. may their eyes grow so dim that they cannot see, all their muscles lose their strength.

23. Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.

24. Vent your fury on them, let your burning anger overtake them.

24. Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

25. Reduce their encampment to ruin, and leave their tents untenanted,

25. Let their habitation be desolate; [and] let none dwell in their tents.

26. for hounding someone you had already stricken, for redoubling the pain of one you had wounded.

26. For they persecute [him] whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.

27. Charge them with crime after crime, exclude them from your saving justice,

27. Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.

28. erase them from the book of life, do not enrol them among the upright.

28. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

29. For myself, wounded wretch that I am, by your saving power raise me up!

29. But I [am] poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.

30. I will praise God's name in song, I will extol him by thanksgiving,

30. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

31. for this will please Yahweh more than an ox, than a bullock horned and hoofed.

31. [This] also shall please the LORD better than an ox [or] bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

32. The humble have seen and are glad. Let your courage revive, you who seek God.

32. The humble shall see [this, and] be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.

33. For God listens to the poor, he has never scorned his captive people.

33. For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.

34. Let heaven and earth and seas, and all that stirs in them, acclaim him!

34. Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.

35. For God will save Zion, and rebuild the cities of Judah, and people will live there on their own land;

35. For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.

36. the descendants of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.

36. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.