¹ My God, whom I praise,
do not remain silent,
² for people who are wicked and deceitful
have opened their mouths against me;
they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
³ With words of hatred they surround me;
they attack me without cause.
⁴ In return for my friendship they accuse me,
but I am a man of prayer.
⁵ They repay me evil for good,
and hatred for my friendship.

⁶ Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
⁷ When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
and may his prayers condemn him.
⁸ May his days be few;
may another take his place of leadership.
⁹ May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.
¹⁰ May his children be wandering beggars;
may they be driven from their ruined homes.
¹¹ May a creditor seize all he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
¹² May no one extend kindness to him
or take pity on his fatherless children.
¹³ May his descendants be cut off,
their names blotted out from the next generation.
¹⁴ May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord;
may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
¹⁵ May their sins always remain before the Lord,
that he may blot out their name from the earth.

¹⁶ For he never thought of doing a kindness,
but hounded to death the poor
and the needy and the brokenhearted.
¹⁷ He loved to pronounce a curse—
may it come back on him.
He found no pleasure in blessing—
may it be far from him.
¹⁸ He wore cursing as his garment;
it entered into his body like water,
into his bones like oil.
¹⁹ May it be like a cloak wrapped about him,
like a belt tied forever around him.
²⁰ May this be the Lord’s payment to my accusers,
to those who speak evil of me.

²¹ But you, Sovereign Lord,
help me for your name’s sake;
out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.
²² For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.
²³ I fade away like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust.
²⁴ My knees give way from fasting;
my body is thin and gaunt.
²⁵ I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they shake their heads.

²⁶ Help me, Lord my God;
save me according to your unfailing love.
²⁷ Let them know that it is your hand,
that you, Lord, have done it.
²⁸ While they curse, may you bless;
may those who attack me be put to shame,
but may your servant rejoice.
²⁹ May my accusers be clothed with disgrace
and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.

³⁰ With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord;
in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him.
³¹ For he stands at the right hand of the needy,
to save their lives from those who would condemn them.