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v1
Save me, O God, because waters have come up to my neck. ^[Hebrew “soul” or “life”]
v2
I sink in the mud of the deep, and there is no foothold. I have come to watery depths, and the torrent floods over me.
v3
I am weary with my calling out; my throat is parched. My eyes are exhausted in my waiting for my God.
v4
More numerous than the hairs of my head are those hating me without a cause. Those who are destroying me—my enemies wrongfully ^[Or, “those who oppose me with falsehood”]— are mighty. What I did not steal, I then must restore.
v5
O God, you yourself know ^[Literally “you, you know”] my foolishness, and my guilty deeds are not hidden from you.
v6
Let those who wait for you not be put to shame because of me, O Lord Yahweh of hosts. Let those who seek you not be disgraced because of me, O God of Israel.
v7
Because on account of you I have borne reproach; disgrace has covered my face.
v8
I have become a stranger to my brothers and a foreigner to my mother’s sons,
v9
because the zeal for your house ^[Or “temple”] has consumed me, and the reproaches of those reproaching you have fallen on me.
v10
When I wept in the fasting of my soul, it became reproaches for me.
v11
When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became for them a byword.
v12
Those sitting at the gate talk about me as also ^[Hebrew “and”] the songs of the drunkards.
v13
But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Yahweh, for a favorable time, O God, according to the abundance of your loyal love. Answer me with the faithfulness of your salvation.
v14
Deliver me from the mud and do not let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me and from the watery depths.
v15
Do not let the torrent of waters flood over me, or the deep swallow me, or the pit close its mouth over me.
v16
Answer me, O Yahweh, because your loyal love is good; according to your abundant mercies, turn to me,
v17
and do not hide your face from your servant. Because I am in trouble, answer me quickly.
v18
Draw near to my soul; redeem it. Because of my enemies, ransom me.
v19
You know my reproach, my shame and my disgrace. Fully known ^[Literally “right in front of”] to you are all my adversaries.
v20
Reproach has broken my heart and I am sick. And I hoped for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.
v21
They also gave me gall for food, ^[Or “they put poison in my food”] and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
v22
Let their table before them be a trap, and their times of peace a snare.
v23
Let their eyes be dark so they cannot see, and make their loins continually tremble.
v24
Pour out your indignation on them, and let your burning anger overtake them.
v25
Let their camp be desolate. Let none dwell in their tents,
v26
because they persecute those whom you, yourself, have struck, and they tell of the pain of those you have wounded.
v27
Add guilt on top of their guilt, ^[Literally “Give guilt on their guilt”] and do not let them be acquitted. ^[Literally “come into your righteousness”]
v28
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be recorded with the righteous.
v29
But as for me, though I am afflicted and pained, your salvation will protect ^[The sense is that of making something inaccessibly high, like a fortress] me, O God.
v30
I will praise the name of God in song, and magnify him with thanksgiving.
v31
For Yahweh it will be better than an ox or bull, horned and hoofed. ^[That is, mature and ritually clean]
v32
The afflicted will see and rejoice. O God seekers, let your heart revive, ^[Or “live”]
v33
because Yahweh hears the needy and does not despise his own who are prisoners.
v34
Let heavens and earth praise him, the seas and all that moves in them,
v35
because God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it.
v36
And the offspring of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will abide in it.