(To the choir-master. Of David. A psalm.)

In finem. Psalmus David.

Unto the end, a psalm for David.

God that guardest my renown, do not leave me unbefriended; there are malicious lips, treacherous lips, that decry me;

Deus, laudem meam ne tacueris, quia os peccatoris et os dolosi super me apertum est.

O God, be not thou silent in my praise: for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me.

whispering against me, hedging me about with a conspiracy of hatred, in unprovoked attack.

Locuti sunt adversum me lingua dolosa, et sermonibus odii circumdederunt me: et expugnaverunt me gratis.

They have spoken against me with deceitful tongues; and they have compassed me about with words of hatred; and have fought against me without cause.

On their side, all calumny in return for love, on mine all prayer;

Pro eo ut me diligerent, detrahebant mihi; ego autem orabam.

Instead of making me a return of love, they detracted me: but I gave myself to prayer.

kindness is repaid with injury, love with ill will.

Et posuerunt adversum me mala pro bonis, et odium pro dilectione mea.

And they repaid me evil for good: and hatred for my love.

An ill master let him have, and an accuser ready at his side;

Constitue super eum peccatorem, et diabolus stet a dextris ejus.

Set thou the sinner over him: and may the devil stand at his right hand.

let him leave the court of judgement a doomed man, pleading with heaven in vain.

Cum judicatur, exeat condemnatus; et oratio ejus fiat in peccatum.

When he is judged, may he go out condemned; and may his prayer be turned to sin.

Swiftly let his days come to an end, and his office be entrusted to another;

Fiant dies ejus pauci, et episcopatum ejus accipiat alter.

May his days be few: and his bishopric let another take.

orphancy for the children, widowhood for the wife!

Fiant filii ejus orphani, et uxor ejus vidua.

May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

Driven from a ruined home, to and fro let his children wander, begging their bread,

Nutantes transferantur filii ejus et mendicent, et ejiciantur de habitationibus suis.

Let his children be carried about vagabonds, and beg; and let them be cast out of their dwellings.

while eager creditors eye his goods, and strangers divide the fruits of his toil.

Scrutetur fœnerator omnem substantiam ejus, et diripiant alieni labores ejus.

May the usurer search all his substance: and let strangers plunder his labours.

May no friend be left to do him a kindness, none to have pity on his defenceless kin;

Non sit illi adjutor, nec sit qui misereatur pupillis ejus.

May there be none to help him: nor none to pity his fatherless offspring.

a speedy end to his race, oblivion for his name before a generation passes!

Fiant nati ejus in interitum; in generatione una deleatur nomen ejus.

May his posterity be cut off; in one generation may his name be blotted out.

Still may the sin of his fathers be remembered in the Lord’s sight, his mother’s guilt remain indelible;

In memoriam redeat iniquitas patrum ejus in conspectu Domini, et peccatum matris ejus non deleatur.

May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered in the sight of the Lord: and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

still may the Lord keep it in mind, and wipe out their memory from the earth.

Fiant contra Dominum semper, et dispereat de terra memoria eorum:

May they be before the Lord continually, and let the memory of them perish from the earth:

Did he himself keep mercy in mind,

pro eo quod non est recordatus facere misericordiam,

because he remembered not to shew mercy,

when he persecuted the helpless, the destitute, the grief-stricken, and marked them down for death?

et persecutus est hominem inopem et mendicum, et compunctum corde, mortificare.

But persecuted the poor man and the beggar; and the broken in heart, to put him to death.

Cursing he loved, upon him let the curse fall; for blessing he cared little, may blessing still pass him by. Let cursing wrap him about, sink like water into his inmost being, soak, like oil, into the marrow of his bones!

Et dilexit maledictionem, et veniet ei; et noluit benedictionem, et elongabitur ab eo. Et induit maledictionem sicut vestimentum; et intravit sicut aqua in interiora ejus, et sicut oleum in ossibus ejus.

And he loved cursing, and it shall come unto him: and he would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him. And he put on cursing, like a garment: and it went in like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones.

Let it be the garb he wears, cling to him like a girdle that he can never take off.

Fiat ei sicut vestimentum quo operitur, et sicut zona qua semper præcingitur.

May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him; and like a girdle with which he is girded continually.

So, in their own coin, may the Lord repay them, my accusers that defame me so cruelly.

Hoc opus eorum qui detrahunt mihi apud Dominum, et qui loquuntur mala adversus animam meam.

This is the work of them who detract me before the Lord; and who speak evils against my soul.

But do thou, my Lord and Master, take my part, to defend thy own honour; no mercy is so tender as thine.

Et tu, Domine, Domine, fac mecum propter nomen tuum, quia suavis est misericordia tua.

But thou, O Lord, do with me for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is sweet. Do thou deliver me,

Deliver me in my helpless need; my heart is pierced through with anguish.

Libera me, quia egenus et pauper ego sum, et cor meum conturbatum est intra me.

for I am poor and needy, and my heart is troubled within me.

Like a tapering shadow I depart, swept away like a locust on the wing.

Sicut umbra cum declinat ablatus sum, et excussus sum sicut locustæ.

I am taken away like the shadow when it declineth: and I am shaken off as locusts.

My knees are weak with fasting, my strength pines away unnourished.

Genua mea infirmata sunt a jejunio, et caro mea immutata est propter oleum.

My knees are weakened through fasting: and my flesh is changed for oil.

They make a laughing-stock of me, toss their heads in derision as they pass by.

Et ego factus sum opprobrium illis; viderunt me, et moverunt capita sua.

And I am become a reproach to them: they saw me and they shaked their heads.

Help me, O Lord my God; deliver me in thy mercy;

Adjuva me, Domine Deus meus; salvum me fac secundum misericordiam tuam.

Help me, O Lord my God; save me according to thy mercy.

prove to them that my woes are a visitation from thee, sent by no hand but thine.

Et sciant quia manus tua hæc, et tu, Domine, fecisti eam.

And let them know that this is thy hand: and that thou, O Lord, hast done it.

Bless me, thou, and let them curse as they will; disappoint my adversaries, and grant thy servant relief.

Maledicent illi, et tu benedices: qui insurgunt in me confundantur; servus autem tuus lætabitur.

They will curse and thou wilt bless: let them that rise up against me be confounded: but thy servant shall rejoice.

Let these, my accusers, be covered with shame, wrapped in the mantle of their own confusion.

Induantur qui detrahunt mihi pudore, et operiantur sicut diploide confusione sua.

Let them that detract me be clothed with shame: and let them be covered with their confusion as with a double cloak.

Loudly will I give the Lord thanks, praise him before multitudes that listen;

Confitebor Domino nimis in ore meo, et in medio multorum laudabo eum:

I will give great thanks to the Lord with my mouth: and in the midst of many I will praise him.

the Lord who has stood at the right hand of the friendless, brought redress to an innocent soul misjudged.

quia astitit a dextris pauperis, ut salvam faceret a persequentibus animam meam.

Because he hath stood at the right hand of the poor, to save my soul from persecutors.