1 ¶ Do not hold thy peace, O God of my praise;

2 f or the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me; they have spoken of me with a lying tongue.

3 T hey compassed me about with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause.

4 T hey have responded to my love by becoming my adversaries, but I give myself unto prayer.

5 A nd they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

6 ¶ Set thou the wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand.

7 W hen he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin.

8 L et his days be few, and let another take his office.

9 L et his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.

10 L et his children be continually vagabonds and beg; let them seek their bread out of their desolate places.

11 L et the extortioner catch all that he has, and let the strangers spoil his labour.

12 L et there be no one to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.

13 L et his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

14 L et the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15 L et them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

16 B ecause he did not remember to show mercy but persecuted the man who is poor in spirit and destitute and broken in heart, that he might slay him.

17 A s he loved the curse, so let it come unto him; as he delighted not in the blessing, so let it be far from him.

18 A s he clothed himself with the curse like as with his garment, and it entered into his bowels like water and like oil into his bones.

19 L et it be unto him as the garment which covers him and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

20 L et this be the reward from the LORD of those who spoke falsely against me and of those that speak evil against my soul.

21 ¶ And thou, O GOD the Lord, do unto me for thy name’s sake; because thy mercy is good, deliver me.

22 F or I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

23 I am gone like the shadow when it declines; I am tossed up and down by the wind as the locust.

24 M y knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh fails for lack of fatness.

25 I have become a reproach unto them; when they looked upon me they shook their heads.

26 H elp me, O LORD my God; O save me according to thy mercy,

27 t hat they may know that this is thy hand, that thou, O LORD, hast done it.

28 L et them curse, but bless thou; when they arise, let them be ashamed, but let thy slave rejoice.

29 L et those who speak evil against me falsely be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle.

30 I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.

31 F or he shall stand at the right hand of the poor in spirit to save his soul from those that judge him.