Psalms 55

¹Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication:

²be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled,

³at the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.

⁴My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me.

⁵Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness hath covered me.

⁶And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?

⁷Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the wilderness.

⁸I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.

⁹Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.

¹⁰Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour,

¹¹and injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.

¹²For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him.

¹³But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar,

¹⁴Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.

¹⁵Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them.

¹⁶But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me.

¹⁷Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice.

¹⁸He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to me: for among many they were with me.

¹⁹God shall hear, and the Eternal shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God:

²⁰he hath stretched forth his hand to repay. They have defiled his covenant,

²¹they are divided by the wrath Of his countenance, and his heart hath drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and the same are darts.

²²Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever.

²³But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.