The Book of Psalms — Liber Psalmorum
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Psalm 72
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1 Psalmus Asaph. Quam bonus Israël Deus, his qui recto sunt corde! | 1 A psalm for Asaph. How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart! | 1 (A psalm. Of Asaph.) What bounty God shews, what divine bounty, to the upright, to the pure of heart! |
2 Mei autem pene moti sunt pedes, pene effusi sunt gressus mei: | 2 But my feet were almost moved; my steps had wellnigh slipped. | 2 Yet I was near losing my foothold, felt the ground sink under my steps, |
3 quia zelavi super iniquos, pacem peccatorum videns. | 3 Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners. | 3 such heart-burning had I at seeing the good fortune of sinners that defy his law; |
4 Quia non est respectus morti eorum, et firmamentum in plaga eorum. | 4 For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in their stripes. | 4 for them, never a pang; healthy and sleek their bodies shew. |
5 In labore hominum non sunt, et cum hominibus non flagellabuntur. | 5 They are not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged like other men. | 5 Not for these to share man’s common lot of trouble; the plagues which afflict human kind still pass them by. |
6 Ideo tenuit eos superbia; operti sunt iniquitate et impietate sua. | 6 Therefore pride hath held them fast: they are covered with their iniquity and their wickedness. | 6 No wonder if pride clings to them like a necklace, if they flaunt, like fine clothes, their wrong-doing. |
7 Prodiit quasi ex adipe iniquitas eorum; transierunt in affectum cordis. | 7 Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of the heart. | 7 From those pampered hearts what malice proceeds, what vile schemes are hatched! |
8 Cogitaverunt et locuti sunt nequitiam; iniquitatem in excelso locuti sunt. | 8 They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high. | 8 Ever jeering, ever talking maliciously, throned on high they preach injustice; |
9 Posuerunt in cælum os suum, et lingua eorum transivit in terra. | 9 They have set their mouth against heaven: and their tongue hath passed through the earth. | 9 their clamour reaches heaven, and their false tales win currency on earth. |
10 Ideo convertetur populus meus hic, et dies pleni invenientur in eis. | 10 Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them. | 10 Enviously the men of my own race look on, to see them draining life’s cup to the full; |
11 Et dixerunt: Quomodo scit Deus, et si est scientia in excelso? | 11 And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? | 11 Can God, they ask, be aware of this? Does the most High know of all that passes? |
12 Ecce ipsi peccatores, et abundantes in sæculo obtinuerunt divitias. | 12 Behold these are sinners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches. | 12 Look at these sinners, how they live at peace, how they rise to greatness! |
13 Et dixi: Ergo sine causa justificavi cor meum, et lavi inter innocentes manus meas, | 13 And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent. | 13 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; |
14 et fui flagellatus tota die, et castigatio mea in matutinis. | 14 And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath been in the mornings. | 14 still, all the while, I am plagued for it, and no morning comes but my scourging is renewed. |
15 Si dicebam: Narrabo sic; ecce nationem filiorum tuorum reprobavi. | 15 If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the generation of thy children. | 15 Was I to share their thoughts? Nay, that were to put the whole company of thy children in the wrong. |
16 Existimabam ut cognoscerem hoc; labor est ante me: | 16 I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight: | 16 I set myself to read the riddle, but it proved a hard search, |
17 donec intrem in sanctuarium Dei, et intelligam in novissimis eorum. | 17 Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last ends. | 17 until I betook myself to God’s sanctuary, and considered, there, what becomes of such men at last. |
18 Verumtamen propter dolos posuisti eis; dejecisti eos dum allevarentur. | 18 But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down. | 18 The truth is, thou art making a slippery path for their feet, ready to plunge them in ruin; |
19 Quomodo facti sunt in desolationem? subito defecerunt: perierunt propter iniquitatem suam. | 19 How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity. | 19 in a moment they are fallen, in a storm of terrors vanished and gone. |
20 Velut somnium surgentium, Domine, in civitate tua imaginem ipsorum ad nihilum rediges. | 20 As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing. | 20 And thou, Lord, dost rise up and brush aside all their imaginings, as a waking man his dream. |
21 Quia inflammatum est cor meum, et renes mei commutati sunt; | 21 For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been changed: | 21 What if my mind was full of bitterness, what if I was pierced to the heart? |
22 et ego ad nihilum redactus sum, et nescivi: | 22 and I am brought to nothing, and I knew not. | 22 I was all dumbness, I was all ignorance, |
23 ut jumentum factus sum apud te, et ego semper tecum. | 23 I am become as a beast before thee: and I am always with thee. | 23 standing there like a brute beast in thy presence. Yet ever thou art at my side, |
24 Tenuisti manum dexteram meam, et in voluntate tua deduxisti me, et cum gloria suscepisti me. | 24 Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy will thou hast conducted me, and with thy glory thou hast received me. | 24 ever holdest me by my right hand. Thine to guide me with thy counsel, thine to welcome me into glory at last. |
25 Quid enim mihi est in cælo? et a te quid volui super terram? | 25 For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth? | 25 What else does heaven hold for me, but thyself? What charm for me has earth, here at thy side? |
26 Defecit caro mea et cor meum; Deus cordis mei, et pars mea, Deus in æternum. | 26 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. | 26 What though flesh of mine, heart of mine, should waste away? Still God will be my heart’s stronghold, eternally my inheritance. |
27 Quia ecce qui elongant se a te peribunt; perdidisti omnes qui fornicantur abs te. | 27 For behold they that go far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee. | 27 Lost those others may be, who desert thy cause, lost are all those who break their troth with thee; |
28 Mihi autem adhærere Deo bonum est; ponere in Domino Deo spem meam: ut annuntiem omnes prædicationes tuas in portis filiæ Sion. | 28 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. | 28 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. |
