Chapter 73

  A Psalm of Asaph. Only -- good to Israel [is] God, to the clean of heart. And I -- as a little thing, My feet have been turned aside,  

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  As nothing, have my steps slipped, For I have been envious of the boastful,  

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  The peace of the wicked I see, That there are no bands at their death,  

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  And their might [is] firm.  

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  In the misery of mortals they are not, And with common men they are not plagued.  

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  Therefore hath pride encircled them, Violence covereth them as a dress.  

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  Their eye hath come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed;  

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  They do corruptly, And they speak in the wickedness of oppression, From on high they speak.  

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  They have set in the heavens their mouth, And their tongue walketh in the earth.  

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  Therefore do His people return hither, And waters of fulness are wrung out to them.  

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  And they have said, 'How hath God known? And is there knowledge in the Most High?'  

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  Lo, these [are] the wicked and easy ones of the age, They have increased strength.  

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  Only -- a vain thing! I have purified my heart, And I wash in innocency my hands,  

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  And I am plagued all the day, And my reproof [is] every morning.  

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  If I have said, 'I recount thus,' Lo, a generation of Thy sons I have deceived.  

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  And I think to know this, Perverseness it [is] in mine eyes,  

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  Till I come in to the sanctuaries of God, I attend to their latter end.  

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  Only, in slippery places Thou dost set them, Thou hast caused them to fall to desolations.  

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  How have they become a desolation as in a moment, They have been ended -- consumed from terrors.  

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  As a dream from awakening, O Lord, In awaking, their image Thou despisest.  

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  For my heart doth show itself violent, And my reins prick themselves,  

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  And I am brutish, and do not know. A beast I have been with Thee.  

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  And I [am] continually with Thee, Thou hast laid hold on my right hand.  

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  With Thy counsel Thou dost lead me, And after honour dost receive me.  

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  Whom have I in the heavens? And with Thee none I have desired in earth.  

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  Consumed hath been my flesh and my heart, The rock of my heart and my portion [is] God to the age.  

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  For, lo, those far from Thee do perish, Thou hast cut off every one, Who is going a whoring from Thee.  

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  And I -- nearness of God to me [is] good, I have placed in the Lord Jehovah my refuge, To recount all Thy works!  

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