Book of Common Prayer

^2 (1) Listen, God, to my prayer!
Don’t hide yourself from my plea!
^3 (2) Pay attention to me, and answer me!

I am panic-stricken as I make my complaint,
I shudder ^4 (3) at how the enemy shouts,
at how the wicked oppress;
for they keep heaping trouble on me
and angrily tormenting me.
^5 (4) My heart within me is pounding in anguish,
the terrors of death press down on me,
^6 (5) fear and trembling overwhelm me,
horror covers me.

^7 (6) I said, “I wish I had wings like a dove!
Then I could fly away and be at rest.
^8 (7) Yes, I would flee to a place far off,
I would stay in the desert. (Selah)
^9 (8) I would quickly find me a shelter
from the raging wind and storm.”

^10 (9) Confuse, Adonai, confound their speech!
For I see violence and fighting in the city.
^11 (10) Day and night they go about its walls;
within are malice and mischief.
^12 (11) Ruin is rife within it,
oppression and fraud never leave its streets.

^13 (12) For it was not an enemy who insulted me;
if it had been, I could have borne it.
It was not my adversary who treated me with scorn;
if it had been, I could have hidden myself.
^14 (13) But it was you, a man of my own kind,
my companion, whom I knew well.

^15 (14) We used to share our hearts with each other;
in the house of God we walked with the crowd.

^16 (15) May he put death on them;
let them go down alive to Sh’ol;
for evil is in their homes
and also in their hearts.

^17 (16) But I will call on God,
and Adonai will save me.
^18 (17) Evening, morning and noon I complain
and moan; but he hears my voice.
^19 (18) He redeems me and gives me peace,
so that no one can come near me.
For there were many who fought me.
^20 (19) God will hear and will humble them,
yes, he who has sat on his throne from the start. (Selah)
For they never change,
and they don’t fear God.

^21 (20) [My companion] attacked those
who were at peace with him;
he broke his solemn word.
^22 (21) What he said sounded smoother than butter,
but his heart was at war.
His words seemed more soothing than oil,
but in fact they were sharp swords.

^23 (22) Unload your burden on Adonai,
and he will sustain you.
He will never permit
the righteous to be moved.

^24 (23) But you will bring them down, God,
into the deepest pit.
Those men, so bloodthirsty and treacherous,
will not live out half their days.

But for my part, [Adonai,]
I put my trust in you.

74 ⁽⁰⁾ A maskil of Asaf:

⁽¹⁾ Why have you rejected us forever, God,
with your anger smoking against the sheep you once pastured?
² Remember your community, which you acquired long ago,
the tribe you redeemed to be your very own.
Remember Mount Tziyon, where you came to live.
³ Hurry your steps to these endless ruins,
to the sanctuary devastated by the enemy.

⁴ The roar of your foes filled your meeting-place;
they raised their own banners as a sign of their conquest.
⁵ The place seemed like a thicket of trees
when lumbermen hack away with their axes.
⁶ With hatchet and hammer they banged away,
smashing all the carved woodwork.
⁷ They set your sanctuary on fire,
tore down and profaned the abode of your name.
⁸ They said to themselves, “We will oppress them completely.”
They have burned down all God’s meeting-places in the land.

⁹ We see no signs, there is no prophet any more;
none of us knows how long it will last.
¹⁰ How much longer, God, will the foe jeer at us?
Will the enemy insult your name forever?
¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand?
Draw your right hand from your coat, and finish them off!

¹² God has been my king from earliest times,
acting to save throughout all the earth.
¹³ By your strength you split the sea in two,
in the water you smashed sea monsters’ heads,
¹⁴ you crushed the heads of Livyatan
and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
¹⁵ You cut channels for springs and streams,
you dried up rivers that had never failed.
¹⁶ The day is yours, and the night is yours;
it was you who established light and sun.
¹⁷ It was you who fixed all the limits of the earth,
you made summer and winter.

¹⁸ Remember how the enemy scoffs at Adonai,
how a brutish people insults your name.
¹⁹ Don’t hand over the soul of your dove to wild beasts,
don’t forget forever the life of your poor.

²⁰ Look to the covenant, for the land’s dark places
are full of the haunts of violence.
²¹ Don’t let the oppressed retreat in confusion;
let the poor and needy praise your name.

²² Arise, God, and defend your cause;
remember how brutish men insult you all day.
²³ Don’t forget what your foes are saying,
the ever-rising uproar of your adversaries.

2 How enveloped in darkness Adonai, in his anger,
has made the daughter of Tziyon!
He has thrown down from heaven to earth
the splendor of Isra’el,
forgotten his footstool [the sanctuary]
on the day of his anger.

² Without pity Adonai swallowed up
all the dwellings of Ya‘akov.
In his wrath he broke down the strongholds
of the daughter of Y’hudah,
brought them down to the ground,
thus profaning the kingdom and its rulers.

³ In his fierce anger he cut off
all the power of Isra’el,
withdrew his protecting right hand
at the approach of the enemy,
and blazed up in Ya‘akov like a flaming fire
devouring everything around it.
⁴ He bent his bow like an enemy,
with his right hand set like a foe.
He killed all who were pleasant to see.
In the tent of the daughter of Tziyon,
he poured out his fury like fire.

⁵ Adonai became like an enemy;
he swallowed up Isra’el,
swallowed up all its palaces,
and destroyed all its strongholds.
For the daughter of Y’hudah
he has multiplied mourning and moaning.

⁶ He wrecked his tabernacle as easily as a garden,
destroyed his place of assembly.
Adonai caused Isra’el to forget
designated times and Shabbats.
In the heat of his anger
he rejected both king and cohen.

⁷ Adonai rejected his altar,
disowned his sanctuary,
and gave her palace walls
over to the power of the foe,
who raised such shouts in the house of Adonai
that it sounded like a festival day.

⁸ Adonai resolved to destroy
the wall of the daughter of Tziyon.
He measured it with his line and did not stay his hand
until it was all in ruins.
He brought grief to rampart and wall;
together they lie dejected.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground;
he destroyed and broke their bars.
Her king and rulers are among the Goyim,
there is no more Torah,
and her prophets do not receive
visions from Adonai.

¹⁴ The visions your prophets saw for you
were futile, just a whitewash.
They did not expose your guilt,
    so as to reverse your fortunes —
    no, the visions they saw for you
    were alluring, but futile.

¹⁵ All who pass your way
clap their hands at you,
hissing and shaking their heads
at the daughter of Yerushalayim:
“This city was called ‘perfection in beauty’?
‘the joy of the whole earth’?”

¹⁶ All your adversaries
open their mouths to jeer at you.
They hiss, they grind their teeth;
they say, “We have swallowed her up!
This is the day we were waiting for,
and now we have lived to see it!”

¹⁷ Adonai has done what he planned,
he has fulfilled his promise,
which he decreed in ancient times.
He has destroyed without pity,
he has let the enemy gloat over you
and filled your foes with pride.

‘The very rock which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone!
¹¹ This has come from Adonai,
and in our eyes it is amazing’?”^[a]