1: Give hearing to my prayer, O God; and let not your ear be shut against my request. 2: Give thought to me, and let my prayer be answered: I have been made low in sorrow; 3: I am troubled because of the voice of the cruel ones, because of the loud cry of the evil-doers; for they put a weight of evil on me, and they are cruel in their hate for me. 4: My heart is deeply wounded, and the fear of death has come on me. 5: Fear and shaking have come over me, with deep fear I am covered. 6: And I said, If only I had wings like a dove! for then I would go in flight from here and be at rest. 7: I would go wandering far away, living in the waste land. (Selah.) 8: I would quickly take cover from the driving storm and from the violent wind. 9: Send destruction on them, O Lord, make a division of tongues among them: for I have seen fighting and violent acts in the town. 10: By day and night they go round the town, on the walls; trouble and sorrow are in the heart of it. 11: Evil is there; cruel rule and deceit are ever in the streets. 12: For it was not my hater who said evil of me; that would have been no grief to me; it was not one outside the number of my friends who made himself strong against me, or I would have kept myself from him in a secret place; 13: But it was you, my equal, my guide, my well-loved friend. 14: We had loving talk together, and went to the house of God in company. 15: Let the hand of death come on them suddenly, and let them go down living into the underworld; because evil is in their houses and in their hearts. 16: As for me, I will make my prayer to God, and he will be my saviour. 17: In the evening and in the morning and in the middle of the day I will make my prayer with sounds of grief; and my voice will come to his ears. 18: He has taken my soul away from the attack which was made against me, and given it peace; for great numbers were against me. 19: God will give thought to me; he who from early times is strong will send pain and trouble on them. (Selah.) Because they are unchanged, they have no fear of God. 20: He has put out his hand against those who were at peace with him; he has not kept his agreement. 21: The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, but they were sharp swords. 22: Put your cares on the Lord, and he will be your support; he will not let the upright man be moved. 23: But you, O God, will send them down into the underworld; the cruel and the false will be cut off before half their days are ended; but I will have faith in you.
