“These things you have done and I kept silence;
You thought that I was just like you;
I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.

Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

“Behold, the man who would not make God his refuge,
But trusted in the abundance of his riches
And was strong in his evil desire.”

His speech was smoother than butter,
But his heart was war;
His words were softer than oil,
Yet they were drawn swords.

The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

Which my lips uttered
And my mouth spoke when I was in distress.

I cried to Him with my mouth,
And He was extolled with my tongue.

You shed abroad a plentiful rain, O God;
You confirmed Your inheritance when it was parched.

When the Almighty scattered the kings there,
It was snowing in Zalmon.

Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick.
And I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
And for comforters, but I found none.

For I was envious of the arrogant
As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

When I pondered to understand this,
It was troublesome in my sight

When my heart was embittered
And I was pierced within,

Then I was senseless and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You.

You caused judgment to be heard from heaven;
The earth feared and was still

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord;
In the night my hand was stretched out without weariness;
My soul refused to be comforted.

The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind;
The lightnings lit up the world;
The earth trembled and shook.

Your way was in the sea
And Your paths in the mighty waters,
And Your footprints may not be known.

And not be like their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not prepare its heart
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath;
And a fire was kindled against Jacob
And anger also mounted against Israel,

Before they had satisfied their desire,
While their food was in their mouths,

And they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their Redeemer.

For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful in His covenant.

When God heard, He was filled with wrath
And greatly abhorred Israel;

He also delivered His people to the sword,
And was filled with wrath at His inheritance.

They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem;
And there was no one to bury them.

It was sending out its branches to the sea
And its shoots to the River.

“I shall mention Rahab and Babylon among those who know Me;
Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia:
‘This one was born there.’”

The Lord will count when He registers the peoples,
“This one was born there.” Selah.

I was afflicted and about to die from my youth on;
I suffer Your terrors; I am overcome.

That when the wicked sprouted up like grass
And all who did iniquity flourished,
It was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.

The sea is His, for it was He who made it,
And His hands formed the dry land.

Zion heard this and was glad,
And the daughters of Judah have rejoiced
Because of Your judgments, O Lord.

Moses and Aaron were among His priests,
And Samuel was among those who called on His name;
They called upon the Lord and He answered them.

He sent a man before them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

They afflicted his feet with fetters,
He himself was laid in irons;

Then He brought them out with silver and gold,
And among His tribes there was not one who stumbled.

Egypt was glad when they departed,
For the dread of them had fallen upon them.

The waters covered their adversaries;
Not one of them was left.

Then Phinehas stood up and interposed,
And so the plague was stayed.

And it was reckoned to him for righteousness,
To all generations forever.

And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and their daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with the blood.

Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people
And He abhorred His inheritance.

Therefore He humbled their heart with labor;
They stumbled and there was none to help.

He also loved cursing, so it came to him;
And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him.

The Lord preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.

You pushed me violently so that I was falling,
But the Lord helped me.

Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.

It is good for me that I was afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.

A Song of Ascents, of David.
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

A Song of Ascents, of David.
“Had it not been the Lord who was on our side,”
Let Israel now say,

“Had it not been the Lord who was on our side
When men rose up against us,

Then they would have swallowed us alive,
When their anger was kindled against us;

Then our mouth was filled with laughter
And our tongue with joyful shouting;
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”

My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

When my spirit was overwhelmed within me,
You knew my path.
In the way where I walk
They have hidden a trap for me.

When I was a son to my father,
Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother,

“I was almost in utter ruin
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”

“I was due to offer peace offerings;
Today I have paid my vows.

“From everlasting I was established,
From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.

“When there were no depths I was brought forth,
When there were no springs abounding with water.

“Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills I was brought forth;

“When He established the heavens, I was there,
When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,

Then I was beside Him, as a master workman;
And I was daily His delight,
Rejoicing always before Him,

And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles;
Its surface was covered with nettles,
And its stone wall was broken down.

So is the man who deceives his neighbor,
And says, “Was I not joking?”

I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.” And behold, it too was futility.

I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives.

All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor.

Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind.

Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them.

There was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, “And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?” This too is vanity and it is a grievous task.

For he has come out of prison to become king, even though he was born poor in his kingdom.

Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.

I tested all this with wisdom, and I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me.

There was a small city with few men in it and a great king came to it, surrounded it and constructed large siegeworks against it.

But there was found in it a poor wise man and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

“While the king was at his table,
My perfume gave forth its fragrance.

“Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
So is my beloved among the young men.
In his shade I took great delight and sat down,
And his fruit was sweet to my taste.

“I was asleep but my heart was awake.
A voice! My beloved was knocking:
‘Open to me, my sister, my darling,
My dove, my perfect one!
For my head is drenched with dew,
My locks with the damp of the night.’

“Before I was aware, my soul set me
Over the chariots of my noble people.”

“Who is this coming up from the wilderness
Leaning on her beloved?”
“Beneath the apple tree I awakened you;
There your mother was in labor with you,
There she was in labor and gave you birth.

“I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers;
Then I became in his eyes as one who finds peace.

“Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon;
He entrusted the vineyard to caretakers.
Each one was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.
Cease to do evil,

How the faithful city has become a harlot,
She who was full of justice!
Righteousness once lodged in her,
But now murderers.

“What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?

And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.

When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans have camped in Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.

But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

And my hand reached to the riches of the peoples like a nest,
And as one gathers abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth;
And there was not one that flapped its wing or opened its beak or chirped.”

And there will be a highway from Assyria
For the remnant of His people who will be left,
Just as there was for Israel
In the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.

And were on many waters.
The grain of the Nile, the harvest of the River was her revenue;
And she was the market of nations.

Behold, the land of the Chaldeans—this is the people which was not; Assyria appointed it for desert creatures—they erected their siege towers, they stripped its palaces, they made it a ruin.