PSALMS 69:4-31

⁴They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would cut me off, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.

⁵O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.

⁶Let not them that wait on thee be ashamed through me, O Lord GOD of hosts: let not those that seek thee be brought to dishonour through me, O God of Israel.

⁷Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

⁸I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.

⁹For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me.

¹⁰When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.

¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a proverb unto them.

¹²They that sit in the gate talk of me; and I am the song of the drunkards.

¹³But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy, answer me in the truth of thy salvation.

¹⁴Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

¹⁵Let not the waterflood overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

¹⁶Answer me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: according to the multitude of thy tender mercies turn thou unto me.

¹⁷And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in distress; answer me speedily.

¹⁸Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: ransom me because of mine enemies.

¹⁹Thou knowest my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.

²⁰Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

²¹They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

²²Let their table before them become a snare; and when they are in peace, let it become a trap.

²³Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.

²⁴Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let the fierceness of thine anger overtake them.

²⁵Let their habitation be desolate; let none dwell in their tents.

²⁶For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they tell of the sorrow of those whom thou hast wounded,

²⁷Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.

²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.

²⁹But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.

³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

³¹And it shall please the LORD better than an ox, or a bullock that hath horns and hoofs.