¹ To the overseer for the sons of Korah: of instruction. O God, with our ears we heard; our fathers recounted to us the work thou didst in their days, in days of old. ² Thou didst with thy hand drive out the nations and thou wilt plant them; thou wilt pluck in pieces the people, and thou wilt send them forth. ³ For by their sword they possessed not the land, and their arm saved them not: for thy right hand and thine arm, and the light of thy face, for thou didst delight in them.

⁴ Thou art he my King, O God: command the salvation of Jacob. ⁵ In thee we will thrust our enemies: in thy name we will tread down those rising up against us. ⁶ For I will not trust in my bow, and my sword will not serve me. ⁷ For thou savedst us from our enemies, and those hating us thou didst make ashamed. ⁸ In God we praised all the day, and thy name we will celebrate forever. Silence.

⁹ But thou didst reject, and thou wilt shame us, and not go forth with our armies. ¹⁰ Thou wilt turn us back from the enemy: and those hating us spoiled for themselves. ¹¹ Thou wilt give us as sheep for food, and thou didst scatter us among the nations. ¹² Thou wilt sell thy people without riches, and thou didst not increase by their price. ¹³ Thou wilt set us a reproach to our neighbors, and a derision and scorn to them round about us. ¹⁴ Thou wilt set us a parable among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples. ¹⁵ All the day my shame before me, and the confusion of my face covered me, ¹⁶ From the voice of him reproaching and reviling, from the face of the enemy and avenger.

¹⁷ All this came to us, and we did not forget thee, and we lied not in thy covenant ¹⁸ Our heart drew not back, and thou wilt not incline our going from thy path; ¹⁹ For thou didst crush us in the place of jackals, and thou wilt cover over us with the shadow of death. ²⁰ If we forgat the name of our God, and stretched out our hands to a strange god: ²¹ Will not God search this out? for he knew the secrets of the heart ²² For, for thee we were killed all the day; we were reckoned as sheep of the slaughter.

²³ Awake, why wilt thou sleep, O Jehovah? awake, thou wilt not reject forever. ²⁴ Why wilt thou hide thy face? wilt thou forget our affliction and our oppression? ²⁵ For our soul was bowed down to the dust: our belly was glued to the earth. ²⁶ Arise a help for us, and redeem us for sake of thy mercy.

¹ To the overseer over the lilies, for the sons of Korah, instruction: a song of the beloved. My heart boiled over a good word: I say my works to the king: my tongue the pen of one writing promptly.