1 | Be not silent, O God of my praise! |
2 | For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. |
3 | They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. |
4 | In return for my love they accuse me, even as I make prayer for them. |
5 | So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love. |
6 | Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser bring him to trial. |
7 | When he is tried, let him come forth guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin! |
8 | May his days be few; may another seize his goods! |
9 | May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow! |
10 | May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit! |
11 | May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil! |
12 | Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any to pity his fatherless children! |
13 | May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation! |
14 | May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out! |
15 | Let them be before the LORD continually; and may his memory be cut off from the earth! |
16 | For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death. |
17 | He loved to curse; let curses come on him! He did not like blessing; may it be far from him! |
18 | He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones! |
19 | May it be like a garment which he wraps round him, like a belt with which he daily girds himself! |
20 | May this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, of those who speak evil against my life! |
21 | But thou, O GOD my Lord, deal on my behalf for thy name's sake; because thy steadfast love is good, deliver me! |
22 | For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me. |
23 | I am gone, like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust. |
24 | My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt. |
25 | I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they wag their heads. |
26 | Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to thy steadfast love! |
27 | Let them know that this is thy hand; thou, O LORD, hast done it! |
28 | Let them curse, but do thou bless! Let my assailants be put to shame; may thy servant be glad! |
29 | May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle! |
30 | With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng. |
31 | For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who condemn him to death. |