Destruction is within her;
Oppression and deceit do not depart from her streets and market places.

But those who seek my life to destroy it
Will [be destroyed and] go into the depths of the earth [into the underworld].

Surely You set the wicked-minded and immoral on slippery places;
You cast them down to destruction.

Turn your footsteps [quickly] toward the perpetual ruins;
The enemy has damaged everything within the sanctuary.

O God, the nations have invaded [the land of Your people] Your inheritance;
They have defiled Your sacred temple;
They have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave
Or Your faithfulness in Abaddon (the underworld)?

You have broken down all his [city] walls;
You have brought his strongholds to ruin.

For Your servants find [melancholy] pleasure in the stones [of her ruins]
And feel pity for her dust.

Let his children wander and beg;
Let them seek their food and be driven far from their ruined homes.

The Lord protects the strangers;
He supports the fatherless and the widow;
But He makes crooked the way of the wicked.

For the Lord knows and fully approves the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked shall perish.

The enemy has been cut off and has vanished in everlasting ruins,
You have uprooted their cities;
The very memory of them has perished.

The cords of death surrounded me,
And the streams of ungodliness and torrents of destruction terrified me.