1 For the end. Destroy not: by David for a memorial, when Saul sent, and watched his house to kill him.
2 Deliver me from mine enemies, O God; and ransom me from those that rise up against me. 3 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.
4 For, behold, they have hunted after my soul; violent men have set upon me: neither is it my iniquity, nor my sin, O Lord. 5 Without iniquity I ran and directed my course aright: awake to help me, and behold. 6 And thou, Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, draw nigh to visit all the heathen; pity not any that work iniquity. Pause. 7 They shall return at evening, and hunger like a dog, and go round about the city.
8 Behold, they shall utter a voice with their mouth, and a sword is in their lips; for who, say they, has heard? 9 But thou, Lord, wilt laugh them to scorn; thou wilt utterly set at nought all the heathen. 10 I will keep my strength, looking to thee; for thou, O God, art my helper. 11 As for my God, his mercy shall go before me: my God will shew me vengeance on mine enemies.
12 Slay them not, lest they forget thy 1law; scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord, my defender. 13 For the sin of their mouth, and the word of their lips, let them be even taken in their pride. 14 And for their cursing and falsehood shall utter destruction be denounced: they shall fall by the wrath of utter destruction, and shall not be; so shall they know that the God of Jacob is Lord of the ends of the earth. Pause. 15 They shall return at evening, and be hungry as a dog, and go round about the city. 16 They shall be scattered hither and thither for meat; and if they be not satisfied, they shall even murmur.
17 But I will sing to thy strength, and in the morning will I exult in thy mercy; for thou hast been my supporter, and my refuge in the day of mine affliction. 18 Thou art my helper; to thee, my God, will I sing; thou art my supporter, O my God, and my mercy.
- 1 v. 12 some read λαοῦ 'people'.
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.