1 For the end, a Psalm of David.
2 Rescue me, O Lord, from the evil man; deliver me from the unjust man. 3 Who have devised injustice in their hearts; all the day they prepared war. 4 They have sharpened their tongue as the tongue of a serpent; [Rom. 3. 13.] the poison of asps is under their lips. Pause. 5 Keep me, O Lord, from the hand of the sinner; rescue me from unjust men; who have purposed to overthrow my goings. 6 The proud have hid a snare for me, and have stretched out ropes for snares for my feet; they set a stumbling-block for me near the path. Pause.
7 I said to the Lord, Thou art my God; hearken, O Lord, to the voice of my supplication. 8 O Lord God, the strength of my salvation; thou hast screened my head in the day of battle. 9 Deliver me not, O Lord, to the sinner, according to my desire: they have devised mischief against me; forsake me not, lest they should be exalted. Pause.
10 As for the head of them that compass me, the mischief of their lips shall cover them. 11 Coals of fire shall fall upon them on the earth; and thou shalt cast them down in afflictions: they shall not bear up under them. 12 A talkative man shall not prosper on the earth: evils shall hunt the unrighteous man to destruction. 13 I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the 1poor, and the right of the needy ones. 14 Surely the righteous shall give thanks to thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence.
- 1 v. 13 Gr. singular.
About this text. This is Sir Lancelot Brenton’s 1851 translation of the Septuagint — the Greek Old Testament the Orthodox Church reads, rather than the Hebrew text behind most English Bibles. It is in the public domain. Words in italics are ones Brenton supplied that the Greek does not have; he marked them so that a reader could tell the difference, and they are kept that way here. The numbered notes are his own. Its English is Victorian, and does not match the modern English of the New Testament pages on this site.
On the numbering. The Psalms are numbered here as the Septuagint numbers them, which is how Orthodox service books cite them. From Psalm 10 onward that is one behind a Hebrew-numbered Bible: Psalm 50 here is the Psalm 51 of most English Bibles. The Septuagint also carries a hundred and fifty-first Psalm, which those Bibles do not.