The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Psalms
|
Psalm 37
|
1
(A psalm. Of David. For a memorial.)
2
Thy reproof, Lord, not thy vengeance; thy chastisement, not thy condemnation!
3
Thy arrows pierce me, thy hand presses me hard;
4
thy anger has driven away all health from my body, never a bone sound in it, so grievous are my sins.
5
My own wrong-doing towers high above me, hangs on me like a heavy burden;
6
my wounds fester and rankle, with my own folly to blame.
7
Beaten down, bowed to the earth, I go mourning all day long,
8
my whole frame afire, my whole body diseased;
9
so spent, so crushed, I groan aloud in the weariness of my heart.
10
Thou, Lord, knowest all my longings, no complaint of mine escapes thee;
11
restless my heart, gone my strength; the very light that shone in my eyes is mine no longer.
12
Friends and neighbours that meet me keep their distance from a doomed man; old companions shun me.
13
Ill-wishers that grudge me life itself lay snares about me, threaten me with ruin; relentlessly their malice plots against me.
14
And I, all the while, am deaf to their threats, dumb before my accusers;
15
mine the unheeding ear, and the tongue that utters no defence.
16
On thee, Lord, my hopes are set; thou, O Lord my God, wilt listen to me.
17
Such is the prayer I make, Do not let my enemies triumph over me, boast of my downfall.
18
Fall full well I may; misery clouds my view;
19
I am ever ready to publish my guilt, ever anxious over my sin.
20
Unprovoked, their malice still prevails; so many that bear me a grudge so wantonly,
21
rewarding good with evil, and for the very rightness of my cause assailing me.
22
Do not fail me, O Lord my God, do not forsake me;
23
hasten to my defence, O Lord, my only refuge.
