1 A Psalm of David, which he sang to the Lord because of the words of Chusi the 1Benjamite.
2 O Lord my God, in thee have I trusted: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me. 3 Lest at any time the enemy seize my soul as a lion, while there is none to ransom, nor to save.
4 O Lord my God, if I have done this; (if there is unrighteousness in my hands;) 5 if I have requited with evil those who requited me with good; may I then perish empty by means of my enemies. 6 Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; and let him trample my life on the ground, and lay my glory in the dust. Pause.
7 Arise, O Lord, in thy wrath; be exalted 2in the utmost boundaries of mine enemies: awake, O Lord my God, according to the decree which thou didst command. 8 And the congregation of the nations shall compass thee: and for this cause do thou return on high. 9 The Lord shall judge the nations: judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my innocence that is in me. 10 Oh let the wickedness of sinners come to an end; and then thou shalt direct the righteous, O God that searchest the hearts and reins.
11 My help is righteous, coming from God who saves the upright in heart. 12 God is a righteous judge, and strong, and patient, not inflicting vengeance every day. 13 If ye will not repent, he will furbish his sword; he has bent his bow, and made it ready. 14 And on it he has fitted the instruments of death; he has completed his arrows for the 3raging ones.
15 Behold, he has travailed with unrighteousness, he has conceived trouble, and brought forth iniquity. 16 He has opened a pit, and dug it up, and he shall fall into the ditch which he has made. 17 His trouble shall return on his own head, and his unrighteousness shall come down on his own crown. 18 I will give thanks to the Lord according to his righteousness; I will sing to the name of the Lord most high.
- 1 v. 1 Lit. son of Jemini.
- 2 v. 7 Heb. 'because of mine enemies.'
- 3 v. 14 See Heb. perhaps 'persecuting ones.'
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.