1 A song of a Psalm for the sons of Core for the end, upon Maeleth for responsive strains, of 1instruction for Æman the Israelite.
2 O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried by day and in the night before thee. 3 Let my prayer come in before thee; incline thine ear to my supplication, O Lord.
4 For my soul is filled with troubles, and my life has drawn nigh to Hades. 5 I have been reckoned with them that go down to the pit; I became as a man without help; 6 free among the dead, as the slain ones 2cast out, who sleep in the tomb; whom thou rememberest no more; and they are rejected from thy hand. 7 They laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, and in the shadow of death. 8 Thy wrath has pressed heavily upon me, and thou hast brought upon me all thy billows. Pause. 9 Thou hast removed my acquaintance far from me; they have made me an abomination to themselves; I have been delivered up, and have not gone forth. 10 Mine eyes are dimmed from poverty; but I cried to thee, O Lord, all the day; I spread forth my hands to thee.
11 Wilt thou work wonders for the dead? or shall 3physicians raise them up, that they shall praise thee? 12 Shall any one declare thy mercy in the tomb? and thy truth in destruction? 13 Shall thy wonders be known in darkness? and thy righteousness in a forgotten land? 14 But I cried to thee, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.
15 Wherefore, O Lord, dost thou reject my 4prayer, and turn thy face away from me? 16 I am poor and in troubles from my youth; and having been exalted, I was brought low and into 5despair. 17 Thy wrath has passed over me; and thy terrors have greatly disquieted me. 18 They compassed me like water; all the day they beset me together. 19 Thou hast put far from me 6every friend, and mine acquaintances because of my wretchedness.
- 1 v. 1 Gr. understanding.
- 2 v. 6 Alex. om. ἐῤῥιμμένοι, cast out.
- 3 v. 11 See Heb.
- 4 v. 15 Heb. and Alex. soul.
- 5 v. 16 See 2 Cor. 4. 8.
- 6 v. 19 Alex. friend and neighbour.
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.