For this reason pride is round them like a chain; they are clothed with violent behaviour as with a robe.

Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.

They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.

Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance.

And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?

Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.

Yea, I had almost also said even as they do; but lo, then should I have condemned the generation of thy children.

You put their feet where there was danger of slipping, so that they go down into destruction.

How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

As a dream when one is awake, they are ended; they are like an image gone out of mind when sleep is over.

For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.

Remember your people whom you acquired in ancient times, whom you rescued so they could be your very own nation, as well as Mount Zion, where you dwell!

Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.

They seemed as men that lifted up Axes upon a thicket of trees.

But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.

They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.

They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.

Thou, didst cleave asunder, in thy might, the sea, Thou didst break in pieces the heads of the Crocodiles, till they floated on the waters;

To the Overseer. -- 'Destroy not.' -- A Psalm of Asaph. -- A Song. We have given thanks to Thee, O God, We have given thanks, and near is Thy name, They have recounted Thy wonders.

For, a cup, is in the hand of Yahweh, Whose wine is foaming, It is full of spiced wine, Which he hath caused to flow from one to another, - Surely, the dregs thereof, they shall drain out - they shall drink, Even all the lawless ones of the earth.

The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands.

Vow and complete to Jehovah your God, All ye surrounding him. They bring presents to the Fearful One.

When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; my hands were raised at night and they did not grow weary. I refused to be comforted.

The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.

Which have come to our hearing and our knowledge, as they were given to us by our fathers.

For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

That the generation to come might know them, the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell them to their children,

That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

And they are not like their fathers, A generation apostate and rebellious, A generation! it hath not prepared its heart, Nor stedfast with God is its spirit.

The sons of Ephraim were armed as archers and carrying bows,
Yet they turned back in the day of battle.

They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

And they forgat his doings, And his wondrous works that he had showed them.

The sea was cut in two so that they might go through; the waters were massed together on this side and on that.

And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.

Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:

Then ate they angels' food, for he sent them meat enough.

So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.

When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and inquired early after God.

And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.

For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.

And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.

He will send forth among them the gad-fly, and they shall devour them; and frogs, and they shall destroy them.

He gave their crops to caterpillars and what they worked for to locusts.

And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies:

But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

He drove His enemies backward;
He subjected them to lasting shame and dishonor.

{A Psalm of Asaph.} O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.

Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.

And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

O Lord God, invincible warrior! How long will you remain angry at your people while they pray to you?

Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?

It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.

So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.

(May those who hate the Lord cower in fear before him! May they be permanently humiliated!)

They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.

They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.

They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:

Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.

Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.

For they have said, Let us take to ourselves God's dwelling-places in possession.

Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.

They are ashamed and troubled for ever, Yea, they are confounded and lost.

That they may know that thou alone, whose name is Jehovah, Art the Most High over all the earth.

The little birds have places for themselves, where they may put their young, even your altars, O Lord of armies, my King and my God.

Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.

Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, they, in whose heart are the highways.

Passing through the valley of Weeping they make it a place of springs; Yea, the early rain covereth it with blessings.

They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

I hear what God Jehovah speaketh, For He speaketh peace unto His people, And unto His saints, and they turn not back to folly.

All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; And they shall glorify thy name.

O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assembly of the violent seek after my soul, and they have not set thee before them.

Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.

I will mention Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me including Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia "This one was born there," they say.

They that sing as well as they that dance'shall say , All my fountains are in thee.

They treat me like those who descend into the grave. I am like a helpless man,

Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall they that are decreased arise and praise thee? Selah

They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

Thou rulest the pride of the sea; thou stillest the waves thereof when they arise.

Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.

In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.

If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;

All they that go by, spoil him; he is become a reproach to his neighbours.

Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.