Psalm 59
Lexham English Bible
A Prayer for Protection
For the music director, according to Do Not Destroy.
Of David. A miktam.
When Saul dispatched men and they watched the house to kill him.[a]
59 Deliver me from my enemies, O my God.
Protect[b] me from those who rise up against me.
2 Deliver me from workers of iniquity,
and from men of bloodshed save me.
3 For look, they lie in wait for my life.[c]
The mighty attack[d] against me,
not because of my transgression or my sin, O Yahweh.
4 Without guilt on my part they run and ready themselves.
Awake to meet me and see.
5 And you, Yahweh, God of hosts, are the God of Israel.
Rouse yourself to punish all the nations.
Do not be gracious to any who treacherously plot evil. Selah
6 They return at evening; they howl like dogs[e]
while they prowl the city.
7 Look, they pour out talk with their mouth.
Swords are on their lips,
for they say, “Who hears?”
8 But you, O Yahweh, will laugh at them;
you will mock all the nations.
9 O my strength,[f] I will watch for you,
because you, O God, are my (high) stronghold.
10 My[g] God of loyal love will meet me;
God will cause me to look in triumph on my enemies.
11 Do not kill them, lest my people forget.
Make them to wander by your power,
and bring them down, O Lord, our shield.
12 By the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips,
even in their pride, let them be trapped,
and for the curses[h] and lies[i] they proclaim.
13 Destroy in anger; destroy so they are no more,
so that they may know that God is ruling in Jacob
to the ends of the earth. Selah
14 They return at evening; they howl like dogs[j]
while they prowl the city.
15 As for them, they wander for food.
If they are not satisfied, then they continue all night.[k]
16 But as for me, I will sing of your strength,
and I will hail your loyal love in the morning,
because you have been my high stronghold
and a refuge in my time[l] of trouble.
17 O my strength, to you I will give praise,
because God is my high stronghold,
my God of loyal love.
Footnotes
- Psalm 59:1 The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one
- Psalm 59:1 The sense is that of making something inaccessibly high, like a fortress
- Psalm 59:3 Hebrew “soul”
- Psalm 59:3 Or “stir up strife”
- Psalm 59:6 Hebrew “dog”
- Psalm 59:9 Reading with a few Hebrew manuscripts and the LXX, Targum and v. 17
- Psalm 59:10 According to the reading tradition (Qere), some Hebrew manuscripts and the LXX
- Psalm 59:12 Hebrew “curse”
- Psalm 59:12 Hebrew “lie”
- Psalm 59:14 Hebrew “dog”
- Psalm 59:15 Or “then they growl”
- Psalm 59:16 Literally “day”
1 Samuel 19:11-18
Lexham English Bible
11 Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to guard him and to kill him in the morning, but Michal his wife told David, saying, “If you do not save your life[a] tonight, then tomorrow you will be killed!” 12 So Michal lowered David through the window, and he went and fled and escaped. 13 Then Michal took the household god[b] and put it on the bed and put a quilt of goat’s hair at its head and covered it with the clothes. 14 And Saul sent messengers to arrest David, but she said, “He is ill.” 15 So Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, so that I can kill him.” 16 When the messengers came, to their surprise[c] the idol was on the bed with the quilt of goat’s hair at the head. 17 Then Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and sent away my enemy, so that he escaped?” Michal said to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go, why should I kill you?’”
18 So David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Samuel 19:11 Literally “you are not saving your life”
- 1 Samuel 19:13 Hebrew teraphim
- 1 Samuel 19:16 Literally “and look”
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