1 A Psalm of David.
O Lord, I have cried to thee; hear me: attend to the voice of my supplication, when I cry to thee. 2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. 3 Set a watch, O Lord, on my mouth, and a 1strong door about my lips. 4 Incline not my heart to evil things, to 2employ pretexts 3for sins, with men who work iniquity: and 4let me not unite with their choice ones. 5 The righteous shall chasten me with mercy, and reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head: for yet shall my prayer also be in their 5pleasures.
6 Their mighty ones have been swallowed up near the rock: they shall hear my words, for they are sweet. 7 As a lump of earth is crushed upon the ground, our bones have been scattered by the mouth of the grave. 8 For mine eyes are to thee, O Lord God: I have hoped in thee; take not away my life. 9 Keep me from the snare which they have set for me, and from the stumbling-blocks of them that work iniquity. 10 Sinners shall fall by their own net: I am alone until I shall escape.
- 1 v. 3 Lit. a door of fortification.
- 2 v. 4 Gr. pretend pretences.
- 3 v. 4 Gr. in.
- 4 v. 4 Gr. I will not.
- 5 v. 5 q. d. lest I be injured by them.
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.