Psalm 55

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

⁴ My heart is in anguish within me,
    the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
⁵ Fear and trembling come upon me,
    and horror overwhelms me.
⁶ And I say, ‘O that I had wings like a dove!
    I would fly away and be at rest;
⁷ truly, I would flee far away;
    I would lodge in the wilderness;Selah
⁸ I would hurry to find a shelter for myself
    from the raging wind and tempest.’

⁹ Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech;
    for I see violence and strife in the city.
¹⁰ Day and night they go around it
    on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
¹¹     ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud
    do not depart from its market-place.

¹² It is not enemies who taunt me—
    I could bear that;
it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me—
    I could hide from them.
¹³ But it is you, my equal,
    my companion, my familiar friend,
¹⁴ with whom I kept pleasant company;
    we walked in the house of God with the throng.
¹⁵ Let death come upon them;
    let them go down alive to Sheol;
    for evil is in their homes and in their hearts.

¹⁶ But I call upon God,
    and the Lord will save me.
¹⁷ Evening and morning and at noon
    I utter my complaint and moan,
    and he will hear my voice.
¹⁸ He will redeem me unharmed
    from the battle that I wage,
    for many are arrayed against me.
¹⁹ God, who is enthroned from of old,Selah
    will hear, and will humble them—
because they do not change,
    and do not fear God.

²⁰ My companion laid hands on a friend
    and violated a covenant with me^[b]
21 with speech smoother than butter,
    but with a heart set on war;
with words that were softer than oil,
    but in fact were drawn swords.

²² Cast your burden^[c] on the Lord,
    and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
    the righteous to be moved.

²³ But you, O God, will cast them down
    into the lowest pit;
the bloodthirsty and treacherous
    shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.