Psalm 109

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

¹ O God of my praise! Keep not silence,

² For the mouths of the wicked and the mouth of deceit are opened against me; they have spoken to me and against me with lying tongues.

³ They have compassed me about also with words of hatred and have fought against me without a cause.

⁴ In return for my love they are my adversaries, but I resort to prayer.

⁵ And they have rewarded and laid upon me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

⁶ Set a wicked man over him [as a judge], and let [a malicious] accuser stand at his right hand.

⁷ When [the wicked] is judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer [for leniency] be turned into a sin.

⁸ Let his days be few; and let another take his office and charge.^(A)

⁹ Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.

¹⁰ Let his children be continual vagabonds [as was Cain] and beg; let them seek their bread and be driven far from their ruined homes.^(B)

¹¹ Let the creditor and extortioner seize all that he has; and let strangers (barbarians and foreigners) plunder the fruits of his labor.

¹² Let there be none to extend or continue mercy and kindness to him, neither let there be any to have pity on his fatherless children.

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

¹⁴ Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

¹⁵ Let them be before the Lord continually, that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth!—

¹⁶ Because the man did not [earnestly] remember to show mercy, but pursued and persecuted the poor and needy man, and the broken in heart [he was ready] to slay.

¹⁷ Yes, he loved cursing, and it came [back] upon him; he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him.

¹⁸ He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment, and it seeped into his inward [life] like water, and like oil into his bones.

¹⁹ Let it be to him as the raiment with which he covers himself and as the girdle with which he is girded continually.

²⁰ Let this be the reward of my adversaries from the Lord, and of those who speak evil against my life.

²¹ But You deal with me and act for me, O God the Lord, for Your name’s sake; because Your mercy and loving-kindness are good, O deliver me.

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

²³ I am gone like the shadow when it lengthens and declines; I toss up and down and am shaken off as the locust.

²⁴ My knees are weak and totter from fasting; and my body is gaunt and has no fatness.

²⁵ I have become also a reproach and a taunt to others; when they see me, they shake their heads.^(C)

²⁶ Help me, O Lord my God; O save me according to Your mercy and loving-kindness!—

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

²⁸ Let them curse, but do You bless. When adversaries arise, let them be put to shame, but let Your servant rejoice.

²⁹ Let my adversaries be clothed with shame and dishonor, and let them cover themselves with their own disgrace and confusion as with a robe.

³⁰ I will give great praise and thanks to the Lord with my mouth; yes, and I will praise Him among the multitude.

³¹ For He will stand at the right hand of the poor and needy, to save him from those who condemn his life.