Chapter 68

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

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

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  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.  

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

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  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.  

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

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  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.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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  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.  

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  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.  

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

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

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

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

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

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  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.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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