Chapter 54

  Unto the end, in verses, understanding for David.  

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  Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication:  

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  the same are darts.  

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  be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled,  

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  at the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.  

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  My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me.  

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  Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness hath covered me.  

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  And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?  

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  Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the wilderness.  

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  I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.  

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  Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.  

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  Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour,  

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  and injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.  

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  For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him.  

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  But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar,  

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  Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.  

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  Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them.  

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  But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me.  

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  Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice.  

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  He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to me: for among many they were with me.  

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  God shall hear, and the Eternal shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God:  

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  he hath stretched forth his hand to repay. They have defiled his covenant,  

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  they are divided by the wrath Of his countenance, and his heart hath drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and  

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  Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever.  

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  But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.  

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