Psalms109

¹ Do not keep silent, O God of my praise!

² For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful Have opened against me; They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.

³ They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause.

⁴ In return for my love they are my accusers, But I give myself to prayer.

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

⁶ Set a wicked man over him, And let an accuser stand at his right hand.

⁷ When he is judged, let him be found guilty, And let his prayer become sin.

⁸ Let his days be few, And let another take his office.

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

¹⁰ Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg; Let them seek their bread also from their desolate places.

¹¹ Let the creditor seize all that he has, And let strangers plunder his labor.

¹² Let there be none to extend mercy to him, Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.

¹³ Let his posterity be cut off, And in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

¹⁴ Let 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 continually before the Lord, That He may cut off the memory of them from the earth;

¹⁶ Because he did not remember to show mercy, But persecuted the poor and needy man, That he might even slay the broken in heart.

¹⁷ As he loved cursing, so let it come to him; As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.

¹⁸ As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, So let it enter his body like water, And like oil into his bones.

¹⁹ Let it be to him like the garment which covers him, And for a belt with which he girds himself continually.

²⁰ Let this be the Lord’s reward to my accusers, And to those who speak evil against my person.

²¹ But You, O God the Lord, Deal with me for Your name’s sake; Because Your mercy is good, deliver me.

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

²³ I am gone like a shadow when it lengthens; I am shaken off like a locust.

²⁴ My knees are weak through fasting, And my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.

²⁵ I also have become a reproach to them; When they look at me, they shake their heads.

²⁶ Help me, O Lord my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy,

²⁷ That they may know that this is Your hand— That You, Lord, have done it!

²⁸ Let them curse, but You bless; When they arise, let them be ashamed, But let Your servant rejoice.

²⁹ Let my accusers be clothed with shame, And let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle.

³⁰ I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude.

³¹ For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, To save him from those who condemn him.