Psalms 72:4-20

⁴For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in their stripes.

⁵They are not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged like other men.

⁶Therefore pride hath held them fast: they are covered with their iniquity and their wickedness.

⁷Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of the heart.

⁸They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high.

⁹They have set their mouth against heaven: and their tongue hath passed through the earth.

¹⁰Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them.

¹¹And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?

¹²Behold these are sinners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches.

¹³And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent.

¹⁴And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath been in the mornings.

¹⁵If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the generation of thy children.

¹⁶I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight:

¹⁷Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last ends.

¹⁸But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down.

¹⁹How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity.

²⁰As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing.