44 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.

² How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.

³ For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.

⁴ Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.

⁵ Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.

⁶ For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.

⁷ But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.

⁸ In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.

⁹ But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.

¹⁰ Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.

¹¹ Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.

¹² Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.

¹³ Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.

¹⁴ Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.

¹⁵ My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,

¹⁶ For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.

¹⁷ All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.

¹⁸ Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;

¹⁹ Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.

²⁰ If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;

²¹ Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

²² Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

²³ Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever.

²⁴ Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?

²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.

²⁶ Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' sake.

¹¹ Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

7 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.

² And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

³ They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

⁴ They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

⁵ In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

⁶ For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

⁷ They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

⁸ Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

⁹ Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.

¹⁰ And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.

¹¹ Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

¹² When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.

¹³ Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

¹⁴ And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.

¹⁵ Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

¹⁶ They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

⁴³ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

⁴⁴ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

⁴⁵ That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

⁴⁶ For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

⁴⁷ And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

⁴⁸ Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.