Psalms 35:6-17

⁶Slippery and dark be their way, with his angel thrusting them on.

⁷For they wantonly hid their net for me, and dug a pit to destroy me.

⁸Upon them may ruin come unawares; may the net which they hid catch themselves, and into the pit may they fall.

⁹Then I will exult in the Lord, and be joyful because of his help;

¹⁰and all my being will say, “Who, O Lord, is like you, who save the helpless from those too strong for them, the poor and the helpless from those who despoil them?”

¹¹Violent witnesses rise, and ask of me things that I know not.

¹²Evil for good they requite me, leaving me inwardly comfortless.

¹³But when they were sick, I put on sackcloth, and chastened myself with fasting. I prayed with head bowed low,

¹⁴as if for my friend or my brother. I went about bowed and in mourning, as one who laments his mother.

¹⁵When I stumbled, they gleefully gathered, strangers gathered around me, and tore at me without ceasing,

¹⁶impiously mocking and mocking, bearing their teeth at me.

¹⁷How long, Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their roaring, my precious life from the lions.