Psalms 22

¹ [For the choirmaster To 'the Doe of the Dawn' Psalm Of David] My God, my God, why have youforsaken me? The words of my groaning do nothing to save me.

² My God, I cal by day but you do not answer, at night, but I find no respite.

³ Yet you, the Holy One, who make your home in the praises of Israel,

⁴ in you our ancestors put their trust, they trusted and you set them free.

⁵ To you they cal ed for help and were delivered; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

⁶ But I am a worm, less than human, scorn of mankind, contempt of the people;

⁷ al who see me jeer at me, they sneer and wag their heads,

⁸ 'He trusted himself to Yahweh, let Yahweh set him free! Let him deliver him, as he took such delight inhim.'

⁹ It was you who drew me from the womb and soothed me on my mother's breast.

¹⁰ On you was I cast from my birth, from the womb I have belonged to you.

¹¹ Do not hold aloof, for trouble is upon me, and no one to help me!

¹² Many bulls are encircling me, wild bul s of Bashan closing in on me.

¹³ Lions ravening and roaring open their jaws at me.

¹⁴ My strength is trickling away, my bones are al disjointed, my heart has turned to wax, melting insideme.

¹⁵ My mouth is dry as earthenware, my tongue sticks to my jaw. You lay me down in the dust of death.

¹⁶ A pack of dogs surrounds me, a gang of villains closing in on me as if to hack off my hands and myfeet.

¹⁷ I can count every one of my bones, while they look on and gloat;

¹⁸ they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

¹⁹ Yahweh, do not hold aloof! My strength, come quickly to my help,

²⁰ rescue my soul from the sword, the one life I have from the grasp of the dog!

²¹ Save me from the lion's mouth, my poor life from the wild bul s' horns!

²² I shal proclaim your name to my brothers, praise you in ful assembly:

²³ 'You who fear Yahweh, praise him! Al the race of Jacob, honour him! Revere him, all the race ofIsrael!'

²⁴ For he has not despised nor disregarded the poverty of the poor, has not turned away his face, buthas listened to the cry for help.

²⁵ Of you is my praise in the thronged assembly, I wil perform my vows before al who fear him.

²⁶ The poor wil eat and be fil ed, those who seek Yahweh wil praise him, 'May your heart live for ever.'

²⁷ The whole wide world wil remember and return to Yahweh, al the families of nations bow downbefore him.

²⁸ For to Yahweh, ruler of the nations, belongs kingly power!

²⁹ Al who prosper on earth wil bow before him, al who go down to the dust wil do reverence beforehim. And those who are dead,

³⁰ their descendants wil serve him, wil proclaim his name to generations

³¹ stil to come; and these will tel of his saving justice to a people yet unborn: he has fulfilled it.