1  Give ear to my words, O Lord;

consider my ^ugroaning.

2  Give attention to the sound of my cry,

my ^vKing and my God,

for ^wto you do I pray.

3  O Lord, in ^xthe morning you hear my voice;

in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you¹ and ^ywatch.

4  For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;

evil may not dwell with you.

5  The ^zboastful shall not ^astand before your eyes;

you ^bhate all evildoers.

6  You destroy those who speak ^clies;

the Lord abhors ^dthe bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

7  But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,

will enter your house.

I will ^ebow down ^ftoward your ^gholy temple

in the fear of you.

8  ^hLead me, O Lord, in your righteousness

because of my enemies;

ⁱmake your way straight before me.

9  For there is no truth in their mouth;

their inmost self is ^jdestruction;

^ktheir throat is ^lan open grave;

they ^mflatter with their tongue.

10  ⁿMake them bear their guilt, O God;

let them ^ofall by their own counsels;

because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,

for they have rebelled against you.

11  But let all who ^ptake refuge in you ^qrejoice;

let them ever sing for joy,

and spread your protection over them,

that those who love your name may ^rexult in you.

12  For you ^sbless the righteous, O Lord;

you ^tcover him with favor as with ^ua shield.

1  Contend, O Lord, with those who ^ycontend with me;

^zfight against those who fight against me!

2  Take hold of ^ashield and buckler

and rise for my help!

3  Draw the spear and javelin¹

against my pursuers!

Say to my soul,

“I am your salvation!”

4  ^bLet them be ^cput to shame and dishonor

who seek after my life!

Let them be ^dturned back and disappointed

who devise evil against me!

5  Let them be like ^echaff before the wind,

with the angel of the Lord driving them away!

6  Let their way be dark and ^fslippery,

with the angel of the Lord pursuing them!

7  For ^gwithout cause ^hthey hid their net for me;

without cause they dug ⁱa pit for my life.²

8  Let ^jdestruction come upon him ^kwhen he does not know it!

And let the net that he hid ensnare him;

let him fall into it—to his destruction!

9  Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord,

^lexulting in his salvation.

10  All my ^mbones shall say,

“O Lord, ⁿwho is like you,

delivering the poor

from him who is too strong for him,

the poor and needy from him who robs him?”

11  ^oMalicious³ witnesses rise up;

they ask me of things that I do not know.

12  ^pThey repay me evil for good;

my soul is bereft.⁴

13  But I, ^qwhen they were sick—

I ^rwore sackcloth;

I ^safflicted myself with fasting;

I prayed ^twith head bowed⁵ on my chest.

14  I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;

as one who laments his mother,

I ^ubowed down in mourning.

15  But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered;

they gathered together against me;

^vwretches whom I did not know

tore at me without ceasing;

16  like profane mockers at a feast,⁶

they ^wgnash at me with their teeth.

17  How long, O Lord, will you ^xlook on?

Rescue me from their destruction,

^ymy precious life from the lions!

18  I will thank you in ^zthe great congregation;

in the mighty throng I will praise you.

19  ^aLet not those rejoice over me

who are ^bwrongfully my foes,

and let not those ^cwink the eye

who ^dhate me ^ewithout cause.

20  For they do not speak peace,

but against those who are quiet in the land

they devise words of deceit.

21  They ^fopen wide their mouths against me;

they say, ^g“Aha, Aha!

Our eyes have seen it!”

22  ^hYou have seen, O Lord; ⁱbe not silent!

O Lord, ^jbe not far from me!

23  Awake and ^krouse yourself for ^lmy vindication,

for my cause, my God and my Lord!

24  ^mVindicate me, O Lord, my God,

according to your righteousness,

and ⁿlet them not rejoice over me!

25  Let them not say in their hearts,

^o“Aha, our heart’s desire!”

Let them not say, ^p“We have swallowed him up.”

26  Let them be ^qput to shame and disappointed altogether

who rejoice at my calamity!

Let them be ^rclothed with shame and dishonor

who ^smagnify themselves against me!

27  Let those who delight in my righteousness

shout for joy and be glad

^tand say evermore,

^u“Great is the Lord,

who ^vdelights in the welfare of his servant!”

28  Then my ^wtongue shall tell of your righteousness

and of your praise all the day long.

1  Praise ^eis due to you,¹ O God, in Zion,

and to you shall ^fvows be performed.

2  O you who ^ghear prayer,

to you ^hshall all flesh come.

3  When ⁱiniquities prevail against me,

you ^jatone for our transgressions.

4  ^kBlessed is the one you choose and bring near,

to ^ldwell in your courts!

We shall be ^msatisfied with the goodness of your house,

the holiness of your temple!

5  By ⁿawesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,

O God of our salvation,

the hope of all ^othe ends of the earth

and of the farthest seas;

6  the one who by his strength established the mountains,

being ^pgirded with might;

7  who ^qstills the roaring of the seas,

the roaring of their waves,

^rthe tumult of the peoples,

8  so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.

You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.

9  You visit the earth and ^swater it;²

you greatly enrich it;

^tthe river of God is full of water;

^uyou provide their grain,

for so you have prepared it.

10  You water its furrows abundantly,

settling its ridges,

softening it with ^vshowers,

and blessing its growth.

11  You crown the year with your bounty;

your wagon tracks ^woverflow with abundance.

12  ^xThe pastures of the wilderness overflow,

the hills ^ygird themselves with joy,

13  ^zthe meadows clothe themselves with flocks,

the valleys deck themselves with grain,

they ^ashout and sing together for joy.

1  Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;

let us ^fmake a joyful noise to ^gthe rock of our salvation!

2  Let us ^hcome into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us ^fmake a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

3  For the Lord is ⁱa great God,

and a great King ^jabove all gods.

4  In his hand are the depths of the earth;

the heights of the mountains are his also.

5  The sea is his, for ^khe made it,

and his hands formed ^kthe dry land.

6  Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

let us ^lkneel before the Lord, our ^mMaker!

7  For he is our ⁿGod,

and we are the people of his ^opasture,

and the sheep of his hand.

^pToday, if you ^qhear his voice,

8  ^rdo not harden your hearts, as at ^sMeribah,

as on the day at ^tMassah in the wilderness,

9  when your fathers put me to the ^utest

and put me to the proof, though they had seen my ^vwork.

10  ^wFor forty years I loathed that generation

and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,

and they have not known ^xmy ways.”

11  Therefore I ^yswore in my wrath,

“They shall not enter ^zmy rest.”

1  Those who ^ftrust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,

which ^gcannot be moved, but abides forever.

2  As the mountains surround Jerusalem,

so ^hthe Lord surrounds his people,

from this time forth and forevermore.

3  For ⁱthe scepter of wickedness shall not ^jrest

on ^kthe land allotted to the righteous,

lest the righteous ^lstretch out

their hands to do wrong.

4  ^mDo good, O Lord, to those who are good,

and to those who are ⁿupright in their hearts!

5  But those who ^oturn aside to their ^pcrooked ways

the Lord will lead away with ^qevildoers!

^rPeace be upon Israel!

1  ^wMy son, be attentive to my wisdom;

^xincline your ear to my understanding,

2  that you may keep ^ydiscretion,

and your lips may ^zguard knowledge.

3  For the lips of ^aa forbidden¹ woman drip honey,

and her speech² is ^bsmoother than oil,

4  but in the end she is ^cbitter as ^dwormwood,

^esharp as ^fa two-edged sword.

5  Her feet ^ggo down to death;

her steps follow the path to³ Sheol;

6  she ^hdoes not ponder the path of life;

her ways wander, and she does not know it.

7  And ⁱnow, O sons, listen to me,

and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

8  Keep your way far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,

9  lest you give your honor to others

and your years to the merciless,

10  lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

and your ^jlabors go to the house of a foreigner,

11  and at the end of your life you ^kgroan,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

12  and you say, ^l“How I hated discipline,

and my heart ^mdespised reproof!

13  I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

or incline my ear to my instructors.

14  ⁿI am at the brink of utter ruin

in the assembled congregation.”

15  Drink ^owater from your own cistern,

flowing water from your own well.

16  Should your ^psprings be scattered abroad,

streams of water ^qin the streets?

17  ^rLet them be for yourself alone,

and not for strangers with you.

18  Let your ^ofountain be blessed,

and ^srejoice in ^tthe wife of your youth,

19  a lovely ^udeer, a graceful doe.

Let her breasts ^vfill you at all times with delight;

be intoxicated⁴ always in her love.

20  Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with ^wa forbidden woman

and embrace the bosom of ^wan adulteress?⁵

21  For ^xa man’s ways are ^ybefore the eyes of the Lord,

and he ^zponders⁶ all his paths.

22  The ^ainiquities of the wicked ^bensnare him,

and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

23  ^cHe dies for lack of discipline,

and because of his great folly he is ^dled astray.