Psalm 109

Modern English Version

⁶ Set a wicked man against him,
    and let an accuser stand at his right hand.
⁷ When he shall be judged, let him be condemned,
    and let his prayer be reckoned as 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 be wandering beggars;
    let them seek their bread far from their desolate places.
¹¹ Let the creditor seize all that he has;
    let the strangers plunder the fruit of his labor.
¹² Let there be none to extend mercy unto him,
    neither let there be any to pity his fatherless children.
¹³ Let his posterity be cut off,
    and in the generation following let his name be blotted out.
¹⁴ Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord,
    and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
¹⁵ Let them be before the Lord continually,
    that the Lord may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

¹⁶ For he did not remember to show kindness,
    but pursued the poor and needy and broken-hearted
    to their death.
¹⁷ As he loved cursing,
    so let it come over him;
as he did not delight in blessing,
    so let it be far from him.
¹⁸ As he clothed himself with cursing like a garment,
    so let it soak into him like water,
    and like oil into his bones.
¹⁹ Let it be unto him as the garment that covers him,
    and a belt that he continually wears.
²⁰ Let this be the reward of my adversaries from the Lord,
    and of those who speak evil against my soul.

²¹ But You, O God my Lord,
    work on my behalf 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 in the evening;
    I am tossed as the locust.
²⁴ My knees are weak through fasting,
    and my body is thin with no fat.
²⁵ I am a reproach to my accusers;
    when they look upon me, they shake their heads.

²⁶ Help me, O Lord my God!
    Save me according to Your mercy,
²⁷ that they may know that this is by Your hand,
    that You, O Lord, have done it.
²⁸ Let them curse, but You will bless;
    when they arise, let them be ashamed,
    but let Your servant rejoice.
²⁹ Let my adversaries be clothed with shame,
    and let them cover themselves with their own disgrace like a cloak.

³⁰ I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth;
    indeed, I will praise Him among the multitude.
³¹ For He stands at the right hand of the poor,
    to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.