The Book of Psalms — Liber Psalmorum
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Psalm 72
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Vulgate><Douay-Rheims><Knox Bible
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Psalmus Asaph.
Quam bonus Israël Deus, his qui recto sunt corde!
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A psalm for Asaph.
How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart!
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(A psalm. Of Asaph.)
What bounty God shews, what divine bounty, to the upright, to the pure of heart!
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Mei autem pene moti sunt pedes, pene effusi sunt gressus mei:
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But my feet were almost moved; my steps had wellnigh slipped.
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Yet I was near losing my foothold, felt the ground sink under my steps,
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quia zelavi super iniquos, pacem peccatorum videns.
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Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners.
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such heart-burning had I at seeing the good fortune of sinners that defy his law;
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Quia non est respectus morti eorum, et firmamentum in plaga eorum.
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For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in their stripes.
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for them, never a pang; healthy and sleek their bodies shew.
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In labore hominum non sunt, et cum hominibus non flagellabuntur.
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They are not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged like other men.
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Not for these to share man’s common lot of trouble; the plagues which afflict human kind still pass them by.
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Ideo tenuit eos superbia; operti sunt iniquitate et impietate sua.
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Therefore pride hath held them fast: they are covered with their iniquity and their wickedness.
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No wonder if pride clings to them like a necklace, if they flaunt, like fine clothes, their wrong-doing.
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Prodiit quasi ex adipe iniquitas eorum; transierunt in affectum cordis.
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Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of the heart.
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From those pampered hearts what malice proceeds, what vile schemes are hatched!
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Cogitaverunt et locuti sunt nequitiam; iniquitatem in excelso locuti sunt.
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They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high.
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Ever jeering, ever talking maliciously, throned on high they preach injustice;
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Posuerunt in cælum os suum, et lingua eorum transivit in terra.
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They have set their mouth against heaven: and their tongue hath passed through the earth.
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their clamour reaches heaven, and their false tales win currency on earth.
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Ideo convertetur populus meus hic, et dies pleni invenientur in eis.
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Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them.
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Enviously the men of my own race look on, to see them draining life’s cup to the full;
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Et dixerunt: Quomodo scit Deus, et si est scientia in excelso?
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And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
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Can God, they ask, be aware of this? Does the most High know of all that passes?
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Ecce ipsi peccatores, et abundantes in sæculo obtinuerunt divitias.
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Behold these are sinners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches.
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Look at these sinners, how they live at peace, how they rise to greatness!
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Et dixi: Ergo sine causa justificavi cor meum, et lavi inter innocentes manus meas,
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And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent.
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Why then, thought I, it is to no purpose that I have kept my heart true, and washed my hands clean in pureness of living;
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et fui flagellatus tota die, et castigatio mea in matutinis.
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And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath been in the mornings.
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still, all the while, I am plagued for it, and no morning comes but my scourging is renewed.
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Si dicebam: Narrabo sic; ecce nationem filiorum tuorum reprobavi.
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If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the generation of thy children.
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Was I to share their thoughts? Nay, that were to put the whole company of thy children in the wrong.
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Existimabam ut cognoscerem hoc; labor est ante me:
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I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight:
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I set myself to read the riddle, but it proved a hard search,
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donec intrem in sanctuarium Dei, et intelligam in novissimis eorum.
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Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last ends.
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until I betook myself to God’s sanctuary, and considered, there, what becomes of such men at last.
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Verumtamen propter dolos posuisti eis; dejecisti eos dum allevarentur.
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But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down.
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The truth is, thou art making a slippery path for their feet, ready to plunge them in ruin;
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Quomodo facti sunt in desolationem? subito defecerunt: perierunt propter iniquitatem suam.
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How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity.
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in a moment they are fallen, in a storm of terrors vanished and gone.
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Velut somnium surgentium, Domine, in civitate tua imaginem ipsorum ad nihilum rediges.
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As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing.
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And thou, Lord, dost rise up and brush aside all their imaginings, as a waking man his dream.
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Quia inflammatum est cor meum, et renes mei commutati sunt;
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For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been changed:
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What if my mind was full of bitterness, what if I was pierced to the heart?
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et ego ad nihilum redactus sum, et nescivi:
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and I am brought to nothing, and I knew not.
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I was all dumbness, I was all ignorance,
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ut jumentum factus sum apud te, et ego semper tecum.
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I am become as a beast before thee: and I am always with thee.
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standing there like a brute beast in thy presence. Yet ever thou art at my side,
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Tenuisti manum dexteram meam, et in voluntate tua deduxisti me, et cum gloria suscepisti me.
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Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy will thou hast conducted me, and with thy glory thou hast received me.
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ever holdest me by my right hand. Thine to guide me with thy counsel, thine to welcome me into glory at last.
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Quid enim mihi est in cælo? et a te quid volui super terram?
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For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth?
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What else does heaven hold for me, but thyself? What charm for me has earth, here at thy side?
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Defecit caro mea et cor meum; Deus cordis mei, et pars mea, Deus in æternum.
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For thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away: thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever.
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What though flesh of mine, heart of mine, should waste away? Still God will be my heart’s stronghold, eternally my inheritance.
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Quia ecce qui elongant se a te peribunt; perdidisti omnes qui fornicantur abs te.
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For behold they that go far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee.
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Lost those others may be, who desert thy cause, lost are all those who break their troth with thee;
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Mihi autem adhærere Deo bonum est; ponere in Domino Deo spem meam: ut annuntiem omnes prædicationes tuas in portis filiæ Sion.
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But it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God: That I may declare all thy praises, in the gates of the daughter of Sion.
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I know no other content but clinging to God, putting my trust in the Lord, my Master; within the gates of royal Sion I will be the herald of thy praise.