1  May the Lord ^lanswer you in the day of trouble!

May ^mthe name of the God of Jacob ⁿprotect you!

2  May he send you help from ^othe sanctuary

and give you support from ^pZion!

3  May he ^qremember all your offerings

and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah

4  May he ^rgrant you your heart’s desire

and fulfill all your plans!

5  May we shout for joy over ^syour salvation,

and in the name of our God set up our ^tbanners!

May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!

6  Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;

he will answer him from his holy heaven

with ^uthe saving might of his right hand.

7  Some trust in ^vchariots and some in ^whorses,

^xbut we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

8  They collapse and fall,

but we rise and stand upright.

9  O Lord, save ^ythe king!

May he answer us when we call.

2  “How long will you torment me

and break me in pieces with words?

3  These ^wten times you have cast reproach upon me;

are you not ashamed to wrong me?

4  And even if it be true that I have erred,

my error remains with myself.

5  If indeed you ^xmagnify yourselves against me

and make my disgrace an argument against me,

6  know then that God has ^yput me in the wrong

and closed his net about me.

7  Behold, I ^zcry out, ‘Violence!’ but I am not answered;

I call for help, but there is no justice.

8  He has ^awalled up my way, so that I cannot pass,

and he has set darkness upon my paths.

9  He has ^bstripped from me my glory

and taken the ^ccrown from my head.

10  He breaks me down on every side, and I ^dam gone,

and my hope has he pulled up like a tree.

11  He has kindled his wrath against me

and ^ecounts me as his adversary.

12  His ^ftroops come on together;

they have ^gcast up their siege ramp¹ against me

and encamp around my tent.

13  “He has put my ^hbrothers far from me,

and ⁱthose who knew me are wholly estranged from me.

14  My relatives ^jhave failed me,

my close ^kfriends have forgotten me.

15  The guests ^lin my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger;

I have become a foreigner in their eyes.

16  I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;

I must plead with him with my mouth for mercy.

17  My breath is strange to my ^mwife,

and I am a stench to the children of ⁿmy own mother.

18  Even young ^ochildren despise me;

when I rise they talk against me.

19  All my ^pintimate friends abhor me,

and those whom I loved have turned against me.

20  My ^qbones stick to my skin and to my flesh,

and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21  Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,

for the hand of God has ^rtouched me!

22  Why do you, like God, ^spursue me?

Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?

23  “Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were ^tinscribed in a book!

24  Oh that with an iron ^upen and lead

they were engraved in the rock forever!

25  For I ^vknow that my ^wRedeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the ^xearth.²

26  And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in³ my flesh I shall ^ysee God,

27  whom I shall see for myself,

and my eyes shall behold, and not ^zanother.

My heart ^afaints within me!

28  If you say, ‘How we will ^spursue him!’

and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’⁴

29  be afraid of the sword,

for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,

that you may know there is ^ba judgment.”