Psalms 109

¹ To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Be not silent, O God of my praise!

² For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.

³ They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.

⁴ In return for my love they accuse me, even as I make prayer for them.

⁵ So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

⁶ Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser bring him to trial.

⁷ When he is tried, let him come forth guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin!

⁸ May his days be few; may another seize his goods!

⁹ May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow!

¹⁰ May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit!

¹¹ May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!

¹² Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any to pity his fatherless children!

¹³ May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation!

¹⁴ May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!

¹⁵ Let them be before the LORD continually; and may his memory be cut off from the earth!

¹⁶ For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.

¹⁷ He loved to curse; let curses come on him! He did not like blessing; may it be far from him!

¹⁸ He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones!

¹⁹ May it be like a garment which he wraps round him, like a belt with which he daily girds himself!

²⁰ May this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, of those who speak evil against my life!

²¹ But thou, O GOD my Lord, deal on my behalf for thy name's sake; because thy steadfast love is good, deliver me!

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

²³ I am gone, like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust.

²⁴ My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.

²⁵ I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they wag their heads.

²⁶ Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to thy steadfast love!

²⁷ Let them know that this is thy hand; thou, O LORD, hast done it!

²⁸ Let them curse, but do thou bless! Let my assailants be put to shame; may thy servant be glad!

²⁹ May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle!

³⁰ With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.

³¹ For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who condemn him to death.