1: To the Overseer with stringed instruments. -- An instruction, by David. Give ear, O God, [to] my prayer, And hide not from my supplication.
2: Attend to me, and answer me, I mourn in my meditation, and make a noise,
3: Because of the voice of an enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked, For they cause sorrow to move against me, And in anger they hate me.
4: My heart is pained within me, And terrors of death have fallen on me.
5: Fear and trembling come in to me, And horror doth cover me.
6: And I say, 'Who doth give to me a pinion as a dove? I fly away and rest,
7: Lo, I move far off, I lodge in a wilderness. Selah.
8: I hasten escape for myself, From a rushing wind, from a whirlwind.
9: Swallow up, O Lord, divide their tongue, For I saw violence and strife in a city.
10: By day and by night they go round it, on its walls. Both iniquity and perverseness [are] in its midst,
11: Mischiefs [are] in its midst. Fraud and deceit depart not from its street.
12: For an enemy reproacheth me not, or I bear [it], He who is hating me Hath not magnified himself against me, Or I hide from him.
13: But thou, a man -- as mine equal, My familiar friend, and mine acquaintance.
14: When together we sweeten counsel, Into the house of God we walk in company.
15: Desolations [are] upon them, They go down [to] Sheol -- alive, For wickedness [is] in their dwelling, in their midst.
16: I -- to God I call, and Jehovah saveth me.
17: Evening, and morning, and noon, I meditate, and make a noise, and He heareth my voice,
18: He hath ransomed in peace my soul From him who is near to me, For with the multitude they were with me.
19: God doth hear and afflict them, And He sitteth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, and fear not God,
20: He hath sent forth his hands against his well-wishers, He hath polluted his covenant.
21: Sweeter than honey hath been his mouth, And his heart [is] war! Softer have been his words than oil, And they [are] drawn [swords].
22: Cast on Jehovah that which He hath given thee, And He doth sustain thee, He doth not suffer for ever the moving of the righteous.
23: And Thou, O God, dost bring them down To a pit of destruction, Men of blood and deceit reach not to half their days, And I -- I do trust in Thee!