² O Lord, ^(A)how long shall I cry for help,
    and you will not hear?
Or cry to you ^(B)“Violence!”
    and you will not save?
^3 (C)Why do you make me see iniquity,
    and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction ^(D)and violence are before me;
    strife and contention arise.
^4 (E)So the law is paralysed,
    and justice never goes forth.
^(F)For the wicked surround the righteous;
    so justice goes forth perverted.

¹² Are you not ^(A)from everlasting,
    O Lord my God, my Holy One?
    ^(B)We shall not die.
O Lord, ^(C)you have ordained them as a judgement,
    and you, O ^(D)Rock, have established them for reproof.
¹³ You who are ^(E)of purer eyes than to see evil
    and cannot look at wrong,
^(F)why do you idly look at traitors
    and ^(G)remain silent when the wicked swallows up
    the man more righteous than he?
¹⁴ You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
    like crawling things that have no ruler.
^15 (H)He brings all of them up ^(I)with a hook;
    he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
    so he rejoices and is glad.
^16 (J)Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,^[a]
    and his food is rich.
¹⁷ Is he then to keep on emptying his net
    ^(K)and mercilessly killing nations for ever?
2 I will ^(L)take my stand at my watchpost
    and station myself on the tower,
and ^(M)look out to see ^(N)what he will say to me,
    and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

^(O)“Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
³ For still ^(P)the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, ^(Q)wait for it;
    ^(R)it will surely come; it will not delay.
⁴ “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
    but ^(S)the righteous shall live by his faith.^[b]

² O Lord, ^(A)I have heard the report of you,
    and ^(B)your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years ^(C)revive it;
    in the midst of the years make it known;
    ^(D)in wrath remember mercy.

¹⁴ You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
    who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
    rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
^15 (A)You trampled the sea with your horses,
    the surging of mighty waters.
^16 (B)I hear, and ^(C)my body trembles;
    my lips quiver at the sound;
^(D)rottenness enters into my bones;
    my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet ^(E)I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
    to come upon people who invade us.

¹⁷ Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
^18 (F)yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    ^(G)I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ God, the Lord, is my strength;
    ^(H)he makes my feet like the deer's;
    he makes me ^(I)tread on my ^(J)high places.
^(K)To the choirmaster: with ^(L)stringed^[a] instruments.