68 Unto the end, for them that shall be changed; for David.

² SAVE me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul.

³ I stick fast in the mire of the deep: and there is no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea: and a tempest hath overwhelmed me.

⁴ I have laboured with crying; my jaws are become hoarse: my eyes have failed, whilst I hope in my God.

⁵ They are multiplied above the hairs of my head, who hate me without cause. My enemies are grown strong who have wrongfully persecuted me: then did I pay that which I took not away.

⁶ O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my offences are not hidden from thee:

⁷ Let not them be ashamed for me, who look for thee, O Lord, the Lord of hosts. Let them not be confounded on my account, who seek thee, O God of Israel.

⁸ Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

⁹ I am become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to the sons of my mother.

¹⁰ For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

¹¹ And I covered my soul in fasting: and it was made a reproach to me.

¹² And I made haircloth my garment: and I became a byword to them.

¹³ They that sat in the gate spoke against me: and they that drank wine made me their song.

¹⁴ But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Lord; for the time of thy good pleasure, O God. In the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

¹⁵ Draw me out of the mire, that I may not stick fast: deliver me from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

¹⁶ Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor the deep swallow me up: and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

¹⁷ Hear me, O Lord, for thy mercy is kind; look upon me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

¹⁸ And turn not away thy face from thy servant: for I am in trouble, hear me speedily.

¹⁹ Attend to my soul, and deliver it: save me because of my enemies.

²⁰ Thou knowest my reproach, and my confusion, and my shame.

²¹ In thy sight are all they that afflict me; my heart hath expected reproach and misery. And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none: and for one that would comfort me, and I found none.

²² And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

²³ Let their table become as a snare before them, and a recompense, and a stumblingblock.

²⁴ Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and their back bend thou down always.

²⁵ Pour out thy indignation upon them: and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

²⁶ Let their habitation be made desolate: and let there be none to dwell in their tabernacles.

²⁷ Because they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds.

²⁸ Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity: and let them not come into thy justice.

²⁹ Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; and with the just let them not be written.

³⁰ But I am poor and sorrowful: thy salvation, O God, hath set me up.

³¹ I will praise the name of God with a canticle: and I will magnify him with praise.

³² And it shall please God better than a young calf, that bringeth forth horns and hoofs.

³³ Let the poor see and rejoice: seek ye God, and your soul shall live.

³⁴ For the Lord hath heard the poor: and hath not despised his prisoners.

³⁵ Let the heavens and the earth praise him; the sea, and every thing that creepeth therein.

³⁶ For God will save Sion, and the cities of Juda shall be built up. And they shall dwell there, and acquire it by inheritance.

³⁷ And the seed of his servants shall possess it; and they that love his name shall dwell therein.