Psalms 35:4-15

⁴Shame them! Humiliate those who are trying to kill me! Turn them back! Disgrace those who are planning to hurt me!

⁵Let them be like chaff blown by the wind; let the angel of the Lord drive them away.

⁶May their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord chasing them down.

⁷For no reason they set a net to catch me; for no reason they dug a pit to trap me.

⁸Let disaster come on them suddenly; let the net they set catch them instead; let the pit they dug trap them instead.

⁹Then I will be glad in the Lord; I will be happy in his salvation.

¹⁰Every part of me will say, Who can compare to you, Lord? You rescue the weak from the strong; the poor and needy from robbers.

¹¹Hostile witnesses stand up to testify against me, accusing me of crimes I don't know anything about.

¹²They pay me back with evil instead of good. I feel like giving up.

¹³But when they were sick, I put on clothes of sackcloth in sympathy. I denied myself through fasting. May my prayer for them return to bless me too.

¹⁴I was upset for them, as if they were my own friends or family; I bowed down in grief as if I was mourning my own mother.

¹⁵But when I was in trouble, they gathered around and laughed at me. Even strangers I don't know attacked me, constantly tearing me apart.