Book Two
Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?
To the choirmaster. A Maskil1 of the sSons of Korah.
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 tMy soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and uappear before God?2
3 vMy tears have been my food
day and night,
while they wsay to me all the day long,
x“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
as I ypour out my soul:
how I would go zwith the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 aWhy are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation3 6 and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
ball your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at cnight his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I dgo mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Elijah Flees Jezebel
1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, s“So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. tAnd he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went uin the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
