Psalms 34:3-18

³Bring forth a sword, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say to my soul, I am your salvation.

⁴Let them that seek my soul be ashamed and confounded: let them that devise evils against me be turned back and put to shame.

⁵Let them be as dust before the wind, and an angel of the Lord afflicting them.

⁶Let their way be dark and slippery, and an angel of the Lord persecuting them.

⁷For without cause they have hid for me their destructive snare: without a cause they have reproached my soul.

⁸Let a snare which they know not come upon them; and the gin which they hid take them; and let them fall into the very same snare.

⁹But my soul shall exult in the Lord: it shall delight in his salvation.

¹⁰All my bones shall say, O Lord, who is like to you? delivering the poor out of the hand of them that are stronger than he, yes, the poor and needy one from them that spoil him.

¹¹Unjust witnesses arose, and asked me of things I new not.

¹²They rewarded me evil for good, and bereavement to my soul.

¹³But I, when they troubled me, put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting: and my prayer shall return to my own bosom.

¹⁴I behaved agreeably towards them as if it had been our neighbor or brother: I humbled myself as one mourning and sad of countenance.

¹⁵Yet they rejoiced against me, and plagues were plentifully brought against me, and I knew it not: they were scattered, but repented not.

¹⁶They tempted me, they sneered at me most contemptuously, they gnashed their teeth upon me.

¹⁷O Lord, when will you look upon me? Deliver my soul from their mischief, my only-begotten one from the lions.

¹⁸I will give thanks to you even in a great congregation: in an abundant people I will praise you.