Paraphrase of the Psalms

Of David, prophet and king. … has not walked in the counsel of the impious, but has kept his heart from youth in accord with the ordinance, singing the divine ordinance nights and days. He will be like a sapling by watery paths; all things will be directed for him as is due, whatever … But [the impious are] like dust, which the wind has scattered from the earth. Therefore the wicked will never rise up in judgment, nor sinners in the counsels of the wise and righteous. For the King knows the path of the pious righteous; therefore the race of the wretched will perish root and all.

This psalm was found without a title, but it is joined to the verses [of the first] among the Hebrews, since among them it is reckoned without one. And the kings of the earth … against their great King and against God’s Christ? … God laughed at them from heaven … and, breathing anger from his heart, he will confound them all … proclaiming the decree of the heavenly King: “You are my Son,” God the Father said to me; “on a new day I myself caused you to be born. Ask of me, so that you may receive as your lot, as I give it, the nations, and may hold all the ends of the earth under the moon. With a rod of iron [you will shepherd] them … and like a potter’s vessels …” Then, you kings of mortals, understand; be instructed, you who hold power under the height of heaven; … and rejoice in him with trembling mind, taking delight. [Lay hold] then of wisdom, lest he dash you all together from the road, when he swiftly rouses his fiery, wrathful mind. All are blessed together who always trust in him.

The mournful third song of David, when, fleeing from his son Absalom, … the lord … [Many say] to my soul that there is no help for it from God? [But you are my helper,] having become my glory, lifting my head above my neck … I call out crying, and he heard me from his holy mountain. I myself lay down, and sweet sleep held me … [and I rose,] since the King will uphold my strength … [I will not be afraid] though I be terrified by myriads of peoples, because you have struck all my vainglorious enemies. … Your light, O King, and your blessing, grant to the people.

… this psalm was made from the songs of David. Be gracious, O Lord, and hear my prayers. Men, how long do you nourish a grievous spirit? How long do you set your love on vanity and on all falsehoods? The heavenly Lord himself will hear me as I cry … Let hope and the sacrifice of righteousness honour the King. Many say, “Who [will show us good things]?” … On us [is set] the golden sign, the light of your face … you gave to my heart all … In peace I will lie down at once and sleep, because you, Blessed One, alone establish me in hope.

[This is the] fifth [psalm] … Hear my voice quickly, and look upon the prayer of my voice. You yourself are Lord God, and I always beseech you. In the morning the Lord will hear our … because you have never been a God who wishes transgression; nor will any evil-devising dweller be with you. God hates the deceitful and murderous man. But I will come to your house by your compassion, and … I will embrace your pure holy [temple]. Let your righteousness lead me, because of my enemies; direct our path before your eyes. For they never carry truth upon their mouth … their tongues are always busied with deceitful words … And according to the multitude of their transgressions [cast them out] … But let all who pray to you, O King, rejoice. Let them rejoice, and may you dwell among them … they will boast in your name, because [you bless] the man who proclaims righteousness …

… But pity my feebleness, O King; be my healer, and stop the trembling of my bones, and my soul, which … Save my … setting aside your former wrath, … my heart from necessity. For who, bound by death, would remember you? And who in Hades would sing you a song of praise? Every night I will wash my chaste bed … I grew old among my enemies. … because my King has heard the sound of my weeping; God most high has received our prayer. Let shame and confusion be on my enemies.

Once Chusi insulted David; but he … the seventh [song] of the king … From all who pursue me, I beseech you, [save me], lest someone seize my heart like a lion. But if I did such a thing as rouses your wrath, if I lay lawless hands on hateful deeds, if I myself did evil to one who did evil, then let a hostile man pursue and take my soul, and trample my life to the ground with his feet, and [lay] my resounding glory … You yourself, Lord, will always be judge for the peoples. Judge me, O King, according to the ordinance of my justice, and make things fitting for my good mind … let … have an end, and may you direct the righteous. You alone test the kidneys and the hidden recesses of the heart, always rescuing the upright races of mortals. The Lord is always holy and …, strong in might, and has a patient spirit, [not] rousing wrath on every occasion. Cease, before [he whets his] sword and stretches his bow; for it has been made most ready. For he has fashioned against him the weapons of destructive death; for those who are burning he has worked bitter [arrows]. Look now at the lawless work of his travail: [he conceived] toil and bore … He dug out a great pit and hollowed it with evil intent; but may the evildoer fall into the very pit he made, and upon his head … I will sing praise worthy of the King’s justice; I will cry out the name of the Most High with the clear-toned lyre.

This eighth hymn of David is for the winepresses. How wonderful is your name on earth! And your glorious boast ran up to heaven itself. Out of the mouth of infants you therefore made praise ready, O undefiled Father, for the sake of your bitter enemies, so that you might destroy together the enemy and … [I will see your heavens,] the wide …, which your fingers made, the stars and the moon, whose foundation you laid with your hand. For what was man, that you remember him? Or the son of man, that you are his overseer? You made him less than the heavenly hosts …; you set him to direct the works of your hands …: the field-ranging oxen and the race of fleecy sheep, the birds of the air and the fishy brood. How wonderful is your name on earth!

An immortal hymn of David, concerning the hidden things, for the son. With unceasing heart, O King, I will sing your praise; in you I will bring to completion lovely gladness and joy; with the lyre [I will sing] your highest name … because you have requited my destroyers according to the ordinance. With a great din their memorial perished everywhere; but the heavenly King remains always, altogether. … he established his throne most high, so that he might judge the famous ends of the earth with justice and hold out straight judgment to his peoples. God is immortal …; you have become the hope of all who learned your name. … he remembered them when they had died, seeking out their blood; nor [did he forget] the cry of the wretched … raising me up even from death, so that in the gates of Zion I may sing all your praise. The King has become manifest, doing upright justice; the sinner has been fettered in the works of his own hand. Let the wicked be turned back into Hades, all the nations that have forgotten God who always is. Nor will the hope of the weak ever pass by. Arise, and let not man rule, prevailing by force; let the races be judged before your eyes. Set, O Lord, another good lawgiver over them; let the nations know that they are of mortal race. … desire … all … and lawless in words; nor [has he] God before his eyes … For he considered in his heart that he would remain, trusting in evil; his mouth is crammed with chilling deceit and cursing; he always has a deceitful tongue … As a deadly lion in the thickets sends out evil plans … swiftly, so that [he may seize] the pitiable … of his rapacious counsel, so that the snares may finish him … But may he fall, having crouched down, before the Lord is called upon by the poor. For he spoke a thought forgetful of the Lord of old, and that he has turned away his all-seeing [face] altogether … [Arise] for me, O King, [lift] your hand on high; do not forget the cry of the toiling. Why does the evildoer always provoke God who always is? For he said in his heart that the King no longer seeks. You see, because you increase both toil and anger, holding [them] in your hands to take those who are unwilling by necessity. For the Lord has not abandoned the needy man … O Lord, break into small pieces the arm of the dreadful man; nor would anyone, seeking, find an end of his wickedness. But God will reign for ever among all; and he has known with his ears the most ready longing of their heart, so that [he may judge] for the orphans and …, so that no one among human beings may have a boastful voice.

This is David’s tenth praise, much prayed for. How will anyone say to me, whose spirit is very confident in God, … since they destroyed what you fashioned, O Shepherd? But what has the man cared for by God done? [The Lord], who has the starry heaven for his lot …, stretching out his all-surveying eye toward the poor man, and seeking out with his eyelids the works of the mortal race — the Lord himself will judge the good and the destructive man. He who loves injustice has become the enemy of his own soul. Fire and brimstone together, and the blast of a joyless storm, … because the Lord is righteous and greatly loves justice; and to him always the straight road …

Save me, you alone; for the holy race has perished utterly, and the works of truth have perished from the root of mortal men. With their lips they spoke, devising deceits in their hearts. And … the boastful tongue of the overweening … and they thought to carry their works upon their lips: “Who of you, a mortal, has become an undefiled king?” The mighty Lord nodded that he himself would rise up … Divine words, words … cleansed by more measures, sevenfold beyond the due measure. But [you will be] a guard and watcher over us in all things … from now, O Lord, and as far as … as good … the races of mortals …

Why have you forgotten me so greatly? How long shall I brood over anxious cares in my mind, in travail in my heart night and day? How long will my enemy strike above my head? … quickly, and hear my voice. Give light, so that I may escape the sleep of death …, lest my enemy boast greatly that he has overcome me. But I, trusting in your mercy, rejoice in your hope. May I always rejoice in my mind at your help.

This is the thirteenth hymn of mighty David. The fool said in his heart that there is no God. There is no doer of good order, not even one. … to see whether anyone would be seeking God the Lord. All turned aside together … There is no doer of good order, not even one. Ignorant of good things, always counsellors of ruin, devouring my people as though it were … they forgot God the King. They were greatly afraid where there was no need of fear … let no one dishonour my cares, because the immortal God has become their hope. When God turns back the day of slavery of the people, …

Of wise David, the [four]teenth … Who would dwell on your undefiled mountain? A man who cares for justice and purity; … the evil-devising race [is despised] before the King; but may God grant great glory to those who fear him. And whoever swears an oath and keeps faithful oaths, nor gathers grievous interest into his hands, nor harms an innocent man in judgment for gifts …

This is the fifteenth after the tenth, a … song. … me, since you are my hope. I said to God the King: You alone are my God; for you yourself have no need of our good things. … has shown forth to those on earth the race of the holy …, and … the plans of the heart among them. Their weaknesses are multiplied, and among them they are swift. … apart from unjust bloodshed … gathering their assemblies into one; and I will not remember their name from my heart nor with my lips. The Lord himself is my lot, and the portion of my cup; the King himself grants me a life-giving inheritance. The measuring lines have fallen for me on strong works; for my lot has become strong and faithful. … before my right hand, so that he may support me. … and my dear body will rest in hope … nor would you make your holy one one of the number of corrupted men. You have shown me the paths of a pious life. Fill me, Blessed One, with gladness with your face.

A prayer of David is the sixteenth hymn. From you may the end of lawful justice appear to us; let my eyes see your straight path. And examining me you found me much purified by fire. For the sake of your [lips] I have kept the untrodden paths of words. Support my dear footstep in your good tracks, so that my feet, rooted, may be fearless. I myself cried out, O Lord, and you heard my dear voice. Incline your ear to me, and hear my words. … your compassionate counsel, rescuing all who hope in your might from lawless men, who have done evil to me. … with satiety they shut up their fat. Like a lion they pursued their most ready prey, … like a whelp … a dark ambush. Arise, and, coming first, throw him to the ground, loosing his knees … snatch my soul … Save me from the few, and from the earth, immortal Shepherd, … while still living through the earth. With your hidden things they filled their capacious belly … they left the remnants of the feast to their sons. But may I appear before the King with justice; your glory, appearing to us, has become enough to satisfy.

Of David, the servant of the heavenly [King] … when the Lord delivered him from all … the eighteenth he addressed … My strength: for I will love you alone always, O God. You yourself have become my support and defence and helper; you are my hope and the protector of my works, the unbreakable horn of my life and championing might. Praising you with prayers, I will escape the hands of my enemies. But I called on God when pressed by ruin, crying to the King from heaven for his helping hand. The mighty earth was shaken, and trembling took hold of all of it; … the foundations of the mountains were troubled, trembling at the divine wrath and anger of the Lord. And the strength of the Blessed One, shining with fire, rose …; darkness was carried beside the feet of the Immortal God …; for he wished to take a defence, like the water hidden in the clouds of the air …; the clouds under their … Then God himself thundered even from heaven; the Most High cried from the sky with his immortal voice. All were stirred up together under …; for all things were terrified at the blast and anger of your spirit. He will rescue me from enemies whose strength is exceeding; and he set me boldly on … He will rescue me from enemies, and will convict those who hate me. May he grant a reward for justice and worthy glory; … this is the gain of the purity of my hands, because I kept the dear paths of the Immortal. Nor did I think of another God in my mind; for there was none. … his ordinances in my heart always, nor did I leave the keeping of his undefiled laws. … I will keep my mind for the King. May he grant a reward for justice and worthy glory. If you are a companion of the holy, you would become holy, and with an understanding mind you would learn from the innocent what is innocent; mixing in all things with a good man, may you hear good things. You yourself will always rescue the humble people from ruin. You yourself will always make my lamp shine bright; may your radiance light up the dark gloom for us. By your nod may I escape the painful trial of evils. Trusting in God who always is, I would leap over a tower. [The ways] of the immortal King are pure; he champions all who have their hope in him. Who is blessed and immortal except the immortal King? Or who has become God apart from our God? He set our path pure and blameless; and setting my dear footstep on the highest places, he made my arms like a bow all of bronze. And your right hand has always been my champion. With your wisdom, Blessed One, I always direct my heart. I have a steady footstep, and you have widened my paths. None of my enemies will pass me as I am driven on in the race; nor have they a steady footing when hard pressed, but may they fall, subdued under our feet. … my enemies were terrified, turning their backs in flight. They themselves cried out, but there was no defender for them. And may you establish me, O Lord, as ruler of peoples. A people I did not know has set its neck as a slave under my yoke; … received our voice with quick obedience. Sons … born lied to me … Sons of strangers came to old age in vain. My King lives, and has always been much praised. May God be the highest of our life, … always … guard me from the evil of opponents; but may I be far stronger, O King, than those who rise up against me. … your highest name with the lyre … your light, warding off evil … you fashioned immortal mercy for [your] anointed.

The heavens proclaim the immortal glory of God, and the firmament of heaven sings the works of his immortal hands. Day poured out an honoured word to day, and night set ambrosial wisdom before night. … a great noise of foreign tongues, nor any words …, and they would not hear … of all; and the words flew through the famous ends of the earth. He himself, shining, rose like a bridegroom from his chamber; going from the other end of heaven he will go forth …; nor is there anyone who may escape the flaming ray when it appears. A faithful testimony plants wisdom in infants, … and light to the eyes. Divine fear has always been pure and steadfast. These your servant knows how to keep with rejoicing, having an exceeding reward of good works for keeping them. What mortal could recognize the multitude of transgressions? … Nor let there be in my heart desire for the possessions of others. … If they do not rule over me, I shall be blameless; and let the meditation of my heart be before your eyes.

… may God ward off the day of necessity; and may the immortal God of Jacob be your champion. … may the averter of evil come near …, and fill your burnt offering with fat. May the Immortal do for you all that is cared for in your heart; may he fulfil all the fitting gifts of your prayers. Now I have learned that God has saved his anointed; and from heaven he will eagerly hear him when he calls, … glorious light by the strength of his right hand. These, then, have mounted on horses and chariots, but we, trusting in the Immortal, will always magnify ourselves. These were fettered in their feet and fell terribly unawares, but for us who have risen all things were directed rightly.

May the king always rejoice, Undefiled One, in your strength, and always delight in his heart at your help. For you have given him the pleasure dear to his soul; … you have fulfilled, and he has taken fruit with his lips abundantly. You crowned his head with a crown of precious stones; he has far-famed glory through your averting strength; and may you extend to him superiority and still greater glory. … Blessed One, by your face. May you arm your hand against all opponents together; may they be burnt up under your eyes like a furnace; and the tireless flame will destroy them as they perish. May you destroy utterly all their fruit from their field, because, pressing upon you, they set countless pains. But be confident, Shepherd, and be magnified in strength; and I will sing in hymns your famous might.

… for the help at dawn. Look, why, Blessed One, have you [forsaken] me, Blessed One, altogether? … the words of my transgression … I cried to you, Blessed One, … nor was I ignorant of your mind in my heart at night. But you dwell in the holy place, the unspeakable glory of Israel. The conspicuous hope of our fathers … They cried to you, Blessed One, and were saved from their necessity, nor did they find shame in return for their immortal hope in you. But I became a worm and not a man, a reproach among men … of the people. As many as saw me before with their eyes spoke with their lips and shook their arrogant head: “He had his hope in God; let him rescue him from ruin … from evil, if he is dear to him.” I call you my hope even at my mother’s breasts; I trusted in you while still dwelling in the recesses of the womb. You yourself are my God in my dear mother’s belly. Do not stand far from me, because the day of necessity is near me, nor has any other helper come to me in my need. … and besides these, bulls surrounded me; they rushed around me, opening their mouths terribly, like a destructive lion roaring with a rapacious spirit. Like water poured out, all my bones were scattered; like wax my heart melted in the middle of my belly; … stuck to my throat …; and they dragged me down to the end of death and set me there. A countless swarm of dogs surrounded me with their eyes; they dug through our hands and feet together; they counted all my bones with their eyes. … they divided my tunics, and shook lots for whoever might carry off my garments. … save me, O King, from the mouth of the grim lion. Let all who shudder at the Lord sing praise; let the seed of Jacob honour God the King, and let all the offspring of Israel fear him. For he did not despise and loathe the prayer of the poor man, nor turn away from me his graceful face. From you is my praise in the great assembly of men; … all the nations will bow the knee before him. Divine is the rule, and God has become Lord of the peoples. … all who go down below the earth will bow the knee before him. And my soul lives for him, and my offspring is his fellow-worker. Let the races of those born later declare these things to God the King.

This is the sweet twenty-second … he roused my heart to return, and directed it to the holy paths of righteousness. For even if I walk in the middle of shadowy death, I had your sceptre and your club as the consolation of my mind. You set your immortal table before me, O Lord, laden … in the face of my shuddering enemies. You anointed my head with good oil; let your cup of gladness be firm for me as …

For the famous day, the first of the Sabbath, a song … The earth is the King’s, and all the adornment of the earth, the cities, and all … He himself founded it upon the barren sea, and built it above the rivers by his counsel. Or who will set his dear footstep on the holy ground? One who never deceived his heart with vain things, nor swore a deceitful oath to his friend against what is due; this man will receive praise from the immortal Lord. This is the race of mortals that longs for God the King, … to know God himself, [the God] of Jacob. … Who is this undefiled King of glory? Immortal and strong, and immortal, steadfast in battle, … always exulting in might. … Who is this undefiled King of glory? The Lord alone, being strong, he …

… Let me not, having trusted in you, take reproachful blame, nor become a laughing-stock to my destructive opponents. For all whose hope is God are blameless. And teaching me good and God-built paths …, good …, I drag on the whole course of the day … But be mindful of your mercy … may you assign compassionate … to all. God, being [good], … worthy of mercy; God has always been gentle-minded and accepting of the upright … he showed the way to the heart. He will lead men of gentle spirit in justice, and … their paths. … of the Immortal are all unerring … For the sake of the immortal, mighty King, be gracious concerning my many transgressions. What man is it who so trembles at the Immortal? May he accomplish the God-pleasing ordinance, hastening toward virtue, feeding his heart, full of joy, always on most blessed things; and may his children possess the honoured land. The name of the Immortal brings profit to those who tremble, so that … [look] upon me from heaven, O Lord, … because I have become an only one and poor; seeing my weakness and toil, be gracious. … the multitude of my enemies … care for our [soul], and guard me; nor let shame seize me from anywhere, since you have become my hope … For your sake I found companions upright of mind and gentle.

This is David’s twenty-fifth hymn. … Judge me, O Lord, with gentle-minded … If you will, test me, and examine my counsel; judge my kidneys and heart with a warming torch. The mercy of my eyes is before you, and I have always been pleasing to your truth. … I will wash my hands in water, and … your altar, … sing the famous praise of my voice, and declare clearly your wondrous works. … of your glorious might. Do not destroy my soul, O Lord, with the impious, nor ever give me a portion of life with murderers. But I have always hastened to lead a gentle life. Rescue me and pity me, since I have obtained a steady footstep.

My defence and my light, O Lord: whom should I fear? He himself is the champion of my life: who could frighten me? I do not care, not even if a whole army comes against me; God is my hope: what fear of battle have I? … I asked of God, and that became thrice-desired for me: always … the undefiled temple of the Lord … famous upon a rock; and now he has lifted up my head thus over my opponents. Hear my voice, Blessed One, as I cry to you. Hear, and pity me; my mind said to you: our heart longs to perceive your eye. May I always seek your gracious light. … your graceful … from me … Be my helper yourself, O Lord, and do not let me go, nor forsake me, being God, always a defender. For my father and lady mother have left me, but the Immortal received me and saved me, guarding me. Ordain for me, Blessed One, always to walk in your paths. … In the land of the blessed I shall see God, the blessedness, with my eyes. … entrust all to God the King. Take courage, and let your heart always be most strong; entrust all to God the King.

The twenty-seventh song of David. To you, Blessed One, I cry; … in silence … Hear my prayer, Blessed One, when I lift up my hands toward your undefiled temple. Do not drag my heart along together with sinners … who hide [evil] in their breasts … ruin worthy of their labours. Give them, O King, what is worthy of their works; may they receive gifts like what they did with their hands; may they take a reward cared for by justice for what they gave to others, because they were wholly forgetful of the works of the Immortal and forgot the works of the great hands of God. May you cast them down for ever and never raise them up. The immortal God of my … is much praised. The Lord himself has become my helper and champion; I know in my mind how great a gain of help hope has found. … my body like … and willingly I will sing to him good and unspeakable praise. The Lord has always been the force and strength of the people; may you save your people and your famous inheritance, and … them continually with good things …

The twenty-eighth song … Bring to the honoured one glory that bears his name; pray in the undefiled court to the Shepherd of the world. The fearless voice of the Immortal thundered upon the waters; … making … like a calf of Lebanon, and as an only-begotten son … The divine voice of the Shepherd cuts the flame of fire; the voice of God through the desert … the sound of the Lord is like the noise of the running of deer that begin [to bear young]; and let everyone in the temple of the blessed God sing glory. … The immortal and unceasing … He himself [gives] unbreakable strength to his own; he himself [blesses] the people with life-giving peace.

May I exalt your strength, because you received me, Shepherd, and rescued me from those who go down to the bottom of the earth. Because the anger of God when he is wrathful is heavy-minded, … evening weeping will be exchanged for morning delight. In good cheer I said that no tossing would ever [come] to me. … let immortal strength from you be for our beauty. When you turned away your eye, trembling seized my limbs. Crying to you, Blessed One, I beseech God who always is: what more if I gave my blood and went down to Hades? … He changed my lament, and exchanged groaning for joy.

Do not put me to shame, since you have become my hope. You are our God, a defender as is due; you yourself are my bronze-founded seat and steady defence. Having become the nourisher of our life, may you lead, because you alone have been the champion of our life. Into your life-bearing hands I commit my dear spirit. But I, trusting in your mercy, rejoice in your hope. … you set my footsteps on a spacious road. … pity me, since I am terribly grieved in our belly and in my heart full of pain. I drag on a life withering amid frequent pains, and a dreadful trouble has seized all my bones. I became an exceeding reproach above all my enemies; those who saw me before went far away, fleeing. I was forgotten from the heart like a dead man, useless. … And those gathered together against me, … devising in their breasts to take my life. But I called on you, God; for you are my hope. My lots are in your hands, Blessed One. Save me for the sake of your good mercy; may shame never seize me, for I called on you as helper. Let the wicked be brought down to Hades, put to shame. … which you have hidden … guarding those who tremble before you … Take courage; and let your heart be very steadfast.

… God has passed over the works … For always, my Lord, your hand was heavy upon me; I became wretched, because thorns were fixed in my skin. I revealed my transgression, and did not cover the ruin of my mind. I said: I will confess to God my reckless deed; and you yourself have passed over the ruin of our heart. For this reason the holy pray at the fitting time. My dear joy, make me free … [I will show you] by what road you must walk. On you, Blessed One, I have fixed my eyes continually; I will set the gleams of my eyes under you. … and horses … becoming; for they have no share in glorious wisdom; they do not wish to come near you with gladness. Scourges of every kind always … May joy and gladness [surround] men pleasing to God.

He cried out this thirty-second hymn … Rejoice in the King, you men who interpret justice. … a new hymn from your hearts …, because the word of the immortal God is upright, and all his royal works are very faithful. The King loves the one who prays rightly, and is careful for … and justice. All the earth of God is filled abundantly with mercy, and all their strength by the breath of the immortal mouth. As in a wineskin … the stream of the sea, setting it by art in hidden … Let the famous ends of the earth fear God the King, because he himself spoke, and all things were accomplished; the Lord himself commanded, and they … the cares of his heart from generation to generation. Blessed always is the race that trusts its King, the people whom he chose out of all to take as his inheritance. The King stretched out his all-seeing [eye] from heaven …; from his chamber he saw the race … the Lord … nor would a giant escape evil, very bold in might. A horse is useless in wars to save a man, nor could he himself escape, raging in his strength. [The eyes] of the great God look on those who tremble, all who are concerned with divine mercy, … and to feed those oppressed in mind by groaning famine. … our soul hangs greatly upon the Lord, because he has become our champion and helper. … let our mind rejoice in him; and his famous name has become our hope. As we hope in you, may we always receive help.

This thirty-third revel-song he sang … I will always cry out to the King; unceasingly with my tongue I will bring his praiseworthy song. … my heart in the Immortal … the Immortal around me … Hasten to come near him, and to take light into your hearts … the poor man cried out, and God … him … The Angel of God, ministering, will come here and there around pious men, so that he may save them. Blessed always is the man who trusts his King; for no one of the pious who longs for you has ever [lacked]. Come here to me, dear children, and hear my words. Flee evil-devising, and show yourself a craftsman of good things, always walking in the lovely tracks of peace. The eyes of the King watch over the righteous, and he has given his most ready ear to their prayers … so that he may destroy their memorial from the earth. The pious cried out, and found God as helper; those whose heart is broken God always knows how to help; and by his spirit [he saves] the humble-minded man. Many and frequent [are the afflictions] of the holy … May the Lord himself care for them and guard all their bones; not one of them would be destroyed … The fate of sinners has become destructive and ill-fated. [34] … Taking shield and sharp sword, may you be my helper. Say to my soul: I have become your safe fence. Let blame convict those who track down my soul, and let the sharp messenger of the Immortal keep them off. Let their road become slippery and dark, and let the messenger of the Immortal pursue them swiftly, because secretly, in vain, they set up a net for me … The snare which they do not expect in their minds … them in the net which they themselves wove. But my soul will rejoice in the Lord, and … in his averting light. All my bones will say: Who is like you, Blessed One, rescuing the poor from mighty destroyers, the poor and needy from rapacious ruiners? Witnesses rising up [asked] me what I did not know … But I, hard pressed, put on mourning garments …, and may my prayer, turned back to my bosom, [return] swiftly. Scourges gathered together, and I did not recognize them at all; … were torn by force, and did not perceive the grief. Say, Blessed One, when you will look upon my inescapable necessity … I will sing your hymn among the mighty people. Those who hate me in vain, and wink with their eyes … they said, rejoicing in my evils, that they were spectators. … Nor will you pass over my unknown cause before your eyes … Judge me in your mercy, all-seeing Shepherd; nor let laughter ever be a double pain to my heart. Let shame seize all who rejoice at my ruin; let those who think arrogantly receive blame. Let joy and gladness attend the holy race, who long to see the peace of his servant. Let my tongue often sing your righteousness, your much-famed praise all day long.

This thirty-fifth of the songs … bearing no fear of God the King before his eyes … the tongue upon pains, always seeking to find hateful folly. But even on his bed [he plans] wickedness; nor did he plan to do good, nor to understand … Immortal One, the heaven holds your honoured mercy; your truth dances even among the clouds; your righteousness is like the divine mountains … May you save the herds of four-footed beasts and the races of mortals together. The shelter of your wings will always be the hope of mortals … are laden with the good things of your halls, and … them … of gladness, because the life-giving spring is with you, Blessed One. … your mercy, O King, … and your righteousness to the upright of mind. There all the servants of wickedness fell, nor will they rise up again, uncared for, from there.

Do not ever envy, seeing the evildoing man; for these wither at once like grass. Rejoicing in the Immortal, may you obtain all your heart’s desires. … nor cease; and he will [do] all for you, and you will bring out your righteousness like light, and … your … like midday. … appeasing the mighty King. Never let envy of the easiest life [seize] you … flee terrible anger, and … But yet a little while, and the hope of the wicked will pass away at once; and you will track down his seat, but it has become invisible. … [the meek] … will always be guarded … But the Most High, seeing him, will laugh sweetly, knowing that his destructive day comes ready. They stretched the string on the irresistible bow, hastening to seize the poor and to destroy the needy; but may their sharp sword pass through their own breast, and may you, Blessed One, break their groaning bows to pieces. [Better] is the very least to the glorious righteous man … The undefiled Lord himself [knows] the ways …; the portion and lot of the good will always be firmer. … servants will utterly perish everywhere, … when the glory of the King rises … The evildoing man, having borrowed, does not know how to pay back; but the righteous always pities and gives to all. But those who cast evil curses will perish everywhere. By divine nods the footsteps of a man are directed, and may God always delight in his paths. Nor would he be broken, falling upon the destructive clefts of the earth, because the King [holds] his hand as helper. Before, I was young; now old age reaches me … and his seed will be fair-leaved for blessing. Flee evil-devising, and care for good works, and may you dwell in the land; for the Lord loves justice … servants will possess the whole land. … The mouth of the pious will always sing wisdom … But God will not leave him in his hands, nor, when he is judged, … victory; but guard his ways. I saw the evildoer lifted up on high, far above the fragrant cedars of Lebanon, ill-fated; but I no longer noticed him as I passed by, nor did his very ground appear to me as I sought. Guard gentleness, so that you may understand all things upright; for there are good remnants for the man of peace. … And the light of the King has become strength to the holy, and the shield-bearer will come swiftly to them when they are worn down, always stretching out his immortal helping hand; and those who care for divine hope will be saved from evils.

… he suffered, and had the Most High above his sufferings … and how you have fixed your hostile hand upon me. Who could heal my body when you are angry? … and are like a heavy [burden]. Stinking bruises … around me for my folly. I became wretched, and was always worn out in my neck; grieving in evil, I went my way all day long, because countless mockeries held my soul. My body does not know how to take rest from pain … but mine … Nor did our groaning escape you, who know all things. My friends were terrified before me, and my companions stood their feet [far off]; and those who came near me … forced me so much, seeking my dear heart … all day long with reproachful tongues. But I became like one who does not hear, … like one ignorant of all kinds of words, like a man without hearing, who does not know how to bring out rebukes with his tongue. My hope, I beseech you; and may you hear me when I call. For I said: Let me not become a joy to my opponents. When my footstep was moved … our body ready for chilling scourges; nor will grief ever leave my eyes. … and those who gave me an evildoing reward in return for good … Send me, Immortal One, send your helping face.

A famous hymn of David, when … this thirty-eighth sweet song. I said, I will keep our way far from evils, … my tongue in wickedness … a well-fenced guard on our lips; like one deaf and lowly I kept silent, though I cared for good things; and my pain, put to rest, woke up again a second time; and in my meditation tireless fire will be kindled. I said, Blessed One, declare to us the dear end of life. Tell me how great a number of life you have decreed, so that I may know what else is left to me. You have made all my days very old, Shepherd, and you knew the root of my life unmixed. Yet man walks like an image … carried about, stirred in his heart … for whom very much life … Is not the King my hope and tower? From him I obtained a life-giving support of life. He gave me as a reproachful blame to foolish men. I endured, mute and voiceless, since you made me so. Drive your scourges, Blessed One, entirely away from me; for under your strong hand I grieve in heart. You have trained a man by rebukes for destructive transgression, and melted his helpless soul like a spider. Hear my prayer, and listen to my supplication; nor, Blessed One, [pass by] in silence me who sheds tears …, because I am a stranger on the earth and a sojourner. Give me rest from toils, so that I may gather my dear heart, before I go whence there is no coming back.

… God and helper, guiding my footstep in his paths. [Blessed is the man] whose hope is the famous name of God, without false frenzy and vain counsel. Nor has another been like you in your counsels. Proclaiming, I recounted the things that would be more than numbering. Gifts for transgression; he refused every sacrifice. Therefore I came here to fulfil, Father, what you command. About me it is written in …; I have longed to do your [will], Blessed One, and I set your ordinance in the middle of my breast. Nor will I ever hold back my lips from the message at all … I myself [did not hide] righteousness in my heart … nor … your truth in a dark mind … your averting light … I proclaimed your mercy and true counsel to the assembly. Therefore do not you fetter your helping hand far off; warm me always with your mercy and true counsel, because exceeding pain holds me here and there. Transgressions have overtaken me and hidden my light, and they have become more than the hairs of my head. But may you willingly come as helper to me in my need. Let shame seize as many as long to destroy my heart; let shame seize at once those who rejoice at my ruin. Let joy and gladness attend the holy race … your averting light.

… the Shepherd will not overlook him on the day of necessity; may he have the King as guard, and caretaker of his life together, and may he be called blessed by God throughout the whole earth. But may the Lord help him even on his bed of evil; he changed his couch and loosed the cares of disease. I myself, O Lord, called on your mercy as helper … Evil and hostile men plotted cares for me, praying: When will my life …? … Going outside, he spoke, gathering all against me. All hostile men murmured against me, and around me they devised a grievously painful load of evils … someone always … This mortal of peace, for he had my hope; whom I fed, I had as an enemy, and he made me less than his heel. Raise me up and have pity on me, so that I may give them what they deserve. From this, Blessed One, I have come to know your gentleness: I perceived that my enemy will not rejoice over me in vain. … Lord, you rose up as helper. Praised for ever is the immortal God of Israel; may he always be highest for ages of ages.

For understanding, once, for the sons … this revel is the forty-first of the song. As a deer longs for the streams of spring waters, so my heart longs for you, Lord most high. My heart thirsted to cry to the living God. When shall I, a mortal, openly see God with my eyes? Days and nights I had groaning as my bread, as they always said: Where is your God? … my … around me … From there to the halls of the heavenly King, with praise and delight, with the famous noise of a feast. … why … my mind within me? Let God be your hope, and I will sing his praise; he himself is the all-seeing defence of my face. My heart was shaken of itself within my mind; … I will call you from the land of Jordan … and your mountain … Your waves came over me, and heavy cares … By day the Lord commands mercy, and at night … a prayer from me to God the King of life. I said to God: Why have you thus always forgotten me? Why do I go about downcast here and there, … when all my bones … They always say to me: Where then is your God? … why … my mind within me? Let God be your hope, and I will sing his praise; he himself is the highest …

This gentle [song] is also one in the forty, about the holy … Judge, O Lord, all that the unjust race has outraged me. My strength, why have you put me away so far from you? Why do I go about downcast here and there, … by which, shining, I shall come to your pure mountain, and be a dweller in your most glorious halls? I will now go to the glorious altar of God; with the clear-sounding lyre, Blessed One, I will sing your praise. … why … my mind within me? Let God be your hope, and I will sing his praise; he himself is the all-seeing defence of my face.

This revel is the forty-third. We have heard with our ears, immortal Shepherd: your hand destroyed races and rooted our fathers; you sacked peoples and drove them from their land. For not by their own sword did they formerly inherit the land, but your hand and the great light of your face, because, persuaded by your heart, you wished to hold them. You yourself are my Lord, and you have always been my God; trusting in you we slay the might of enemies with our horns; calling on your name … For I do not glory in my bow as a hope, nor [did] the long-edged sword … me from evils; the Lord himself … of those who thrust at us. Daily glory is ours with the immortal King, and we will sing your divine name unceasingly. But now you have poured shame on us, thrusting us away so far, and we are ready plunder at the feet of those who hate us. You have given us like sheep for banquets, nor was there any price for the exchange. You made us a reproach to our neighbours and laughter to all around, a much-noised byword to the nations, and a laughable shaking of the head to the peoples who blame. … before my eyes all day … by the voice of the insolent and reproachful man. But we have not forgotten you for the sake of so many [evils], Shepherd, nor … nor turned our heart away from you at all. Will not the Immortal himself track out all these things? For he himself knows the hidden places of the mortal heart. For your sake we are always subdued by death, Shepherd … why so much sleep for me? Wake up, and do not drive us far from your eyelids. Why have you turned your … and forgotten our toils and poverty altogether … for your sake … of our helpless ruin.

This is the forty-fourth hymn. Our heart has brought forth a good word; I have a tongue like the pen of a swift-writing man. You flash in beauty beyond the rest of the mortal race; grace has been poured on your wise lips, because God himself has fastened on you ageless praise. Trusting in your beauty, and confident in your glorious bloom, for the sake of holy gentleness and true work, your right hand will lead in wonders; … ready against the breasts of the enemies of the king. … Therefore God himself poured his anointing on you, anointing you with the oil of delight above all your fellows. Myrrh and stacte and cassia [waft] from your [garments] out of ivory temples, with which your heart too was gladdened. … daughters …, the glory of mighty kings. In robes woven with gold the queen stood near. Hear, child, looking, and incline your dear ear to me. For he himself also ruled formerly before you, and the maidens of Tyre bowed the knee to him with soothing gifts; the rich of the land will entreat your face with prayer. All the glory of the royal maiden was within … to the king … honour … your honour are the companions of the mighty queen. Let them be led to the seat of joy and good gladness … into the temple of the mighty King. Instead of your fathers your sons will be [born] to you; may you establish them [rulers] of the whole earth. I will remember you greatly … I will sing your fair name to generations of generations, from now and hereafter and to unceasing generations, from now and hereafter and to the ages to come.

A revel-song concerning hidden things, which the divine lyre brought to light, is the forty-fifth. The immortal God has become my fence and strength; therefore we would not cower when the earth is much stirred, nor when the mountains move into the depths of the sea. The mountains whirled at his divine strength. … of the river of God gladden …; he made his … undefiled; nor will it ever cease, God sitting in its midst … has the all-seeing eye as helper. The ruler of the heavenly powers is our helper; God himself, the champion of Jacob, has become ours. Come, friends, let us see the wondrous works of the King, the signs he made over the fruitful field, stopping wars over the whole circle of the earth. May he break the bow and … the shield, and burn the shields with the onrush of raging fire. Consider, holding still, that the immortal God has come to be, most high among the nations, and above the whole earth. The ruler of the heavenly powers is our helper; God himself, the champion of Jacob, has become ours.

A gentle song upon the forty-sixth. … shout to God the King with your voice, because he has become most high and fearful to all together, reigning over every boundary of the earth. Choosing, he gave us a dear and gentle inheritance, the portion of Jacob, always pleasing to God. God [went up] with a shout, a hymn of victory; the sound of the clear trumpet … went up. Sing to our King with wise songs, because the immortal God rules over the whole earth. Sing to me with a wise heart and a prudent word. The Immortal has acquired great might over all peoples; God himself upon [his] undefiled … Facing God, the rulers of the earth were armed in their transgression.

… was written as a delight for the sons of Korah; they sang it for the second [day] … The Immortal is to be praised, and indeed he alone has become great, around his city and his mountain always undefiled; widening joy on the earth from every side … the mountains of Zion … The Immortal has become conspicuous in his towers. All the kings of the earth came, gathering …; may they receive frequent pains like a woman giving birth, … as when by force he seizes ships … Was it not, then, a mere report? For the deed accompanies the words. In the famous city of God, of God, King of powers, the Shepherd himself fixed its foundation unshakable. In the midst of your peoples, O Lord, may you grant mercy. … Lord, your name … so let your praise be to the ends of the whole earth. … of your righteousness, Shepherd. … set your hearts on him and on his might, because he himself is always King and also God; from former generations … ageless, he will shepherd us in all things.

The forty-eighth also has … Hear, countless races, what my mind hides within, the poor together with those who care for unspeakable wealth. With the meditation of our heart … I will incline my keen-hearing ear to the varied riddle. Why do I still tremble at the shuddering and helpless day? Rich men, … in their might, whose spirit is overweening upon their possessions — will he not appease God the begetter for the sake of the world, paying as penalty the price of the immortal soul? When he sees the wise dying, he will tread on evil; the fool will perish together, foolishly and childishly, and will leave … to others of their halls … so that they will dwell in halls continually; they had a name from the earth, from which they were born, subdued. The childish mortal, concerned with honours, did not understand. … this road of destruction will be a net upon them … like sheep, … counsellors took Hades … under the yoke the neck … In Hades their help will be useless. May God free my heart from the necessity of death. Never fear in your heart the wealth of mortals, nor will the unspeakable glory of his house be laid down with him. … will perish together, … will perish together. Only his strength, dear to the living, will be praised, and he will praise you greatly, when you accomplish some good for him. He will go thus to the ancient generation of his fathers. The childish mortal, concerned with honours, did not understand … he embraced such a nature.

The forty-ninth song of David. The God of gods called the whole earth, gathering it into one, from the rising of the shining sun to its setting. The immortal God will be present openly to mortals, nor will anyone be ignorant of God; for he will not allow it. Around him … roared greatly … the starry heaven near, and the much-nourishing earth, so that he might judge the peoples, … so that they may proclaim lovely righteousness, because the honoured King judges among all. Hear, my race, and I will tell you what is lawful. Hear me, Israel; for I will teach you above others: I myself am God to you, and I have become God for you. I do not care about calves, which you rear in your halls; I will refuse the strong sheep from your flock. For I myself made all things, which the forest nourishes on the mountains, … whatever … nor do the birds, abundant through the air, escape my notice; for our divine hand fashioned all things. I do not accept bulls, nor will I drink the blood of goats. Offer to God a sweet sacrifice; for praise has become his sacrifice; and pay to the Most High the thanks of your vows. … you call me as helper in necessity; I am a good helper to you, and you will sing my glory. … [why do you declare] my righteous ordinances, and carry my covenant on your lips? You always hate to think good thoughts, and you have always refused the grace of our words. And you had your foot running together with the evil-minded robber, … sitting … of your brother … evil things, and you wove helpless ruin for your mother’s son. These things you did, and I was quiet toward you. You thought lawless things, that I would be like you in mind; I will set your transgressions before you, always rebuking. The most blessed sacrifice to me is a pleasing hymn; this road shows the life-giving force of the Immortal.

Once David, yielding to unseemly love, then also slew the woman’s husband; and Nathan, having been shown obedient to God, … with remedies …; but he, not unworthily of the nobility of his ways, propitiates the gentle Master, and moves him himself to pity toward … This psalm is the fiftieth song. … with groans and tears, to the godlike King … the merciful heart of God … my … more than water. Because I have recognized lawlessness in my heart, and my wickedness is before my eyes, I sinned against you, Blessed One, and did pain before you, so that you may appear holy in your words among all, and in judgment you alone will be superior to others. For in lawlessness my father, having yielded, sowed me, and in wickedness my lady mother conceived me. And you taught me the paths of your hidden wisdom, and you will make me much whiter than snow, washing me. All the bones of the worn-down will rejoice in you. … and my … a heart, O Lord, in my breast … nor take your holy spirit from me at all. Give me back the delight of light, O King, and establish my strength with a ruling spirit. And the wicked will return to you again from every side. Light of my life, my tongue … your … Open my lips, Blessed One, and let them pour out your justice … [if] you commanded, I would offer [a sacrifice] ready. A humble spirit is the care of the Immortal as sacrifice; the Lord will not despise a humble and gentle heart. May you give to Zion, Blessed One, blessed things according to your will; … burnt offering and … then they will offer calves on your altar.

This is the fifty-first song. Why, mighty one, do you trust in your evil? … your tongue … thus, sawing deceit like a sharp, whetted razor; instead of righteousness all lawless things … every word of the tongue … Therefore the Lord will destroy you utterly, taking away your glory … cutting you off, he will remove you from your house, and may he tear your inglorious root from the earth. And they will say such things about him, smiling: “This man refused to have the immortal God as helper.” But I flourish like an olive tree about the divine seat, now and hereafter for continual generations, always receiving your sweet name with your holy ones.

Of wise David, concerning godlike Maeleth; and this is the fifty-second hymn. The fool said in his heart that there is no God. Devising shameful things, they perished by their works. There is no doer of good order, not even one. … to see whether there was anyone seeking God the Lord. All turned aside together … There is no doer of good order, not even one. But those ignorant of good things, always counsellors of ruin, … they forgot God the King. They were greatly afraid where there was no need of fear. All the bones of those who care to please men were scattered, and the Immortal himself, despising them, gave them … When God turns back the day of slavery of the people …

When the Ziphites … led … to Saul …, spared, and they said that David was hidden among them, the fifty-third song is his. May your name, O King, save me far from evils, and, having measured me, may you judge me thus by your strength … hear my …, highest Shepherd; … your keen-hearing ear to our words, because a foreign race of enemies armed itself against me, and they did not remember God the King in their minds. Surely God will be a helper to me when I call, and may the Lord fight continually for my life. … In your truth, O King, may you blind them. But I will bring you a sacrifice with a longing mind; I will sing your name, O King, for it is good, because you have rescued my soul from every necessity.

Being the fiftieth with four other good ones. Hear my prayer, highest Shepherd … hearing, and … toil … and raging they set bitter wrath in their hearts. Our heart around me is struck with trouble; fear and trembling came upon me, and darkness covered … And I said: Who would give me wings like a dove, so that my body … from toil? I set my flight far off, and made my lodging in the desert … I perceived … and contradiction in the city; … bears … and toil; nor let deceitful toil be lacking from their paths … and of the words of the hated one … Did we not both taste sweet feasting beside you … the dear house of God? May a death worthy of their works come upon the destructive, and … into the pit of Hades still … But I cried out, and God heard my voice. From dawn I will speak, and in the evening and at midday … many, trusting, opposed me … For they have no ransom, and do not care for God. The counsel of the immortal Lord watched near; their words became softer than oil, but among them they were like destructive darts. And always … But may you bring them down, O King, into the pit of destruction; may murderous and deceitful men perish in the middle of life. But I … in the King …

… those who set their mind within … He cried shrilly to his King, and God rescued him from toils; and this is the fifty-fifth song. Be gracious to me; for a man greatly tramples me with his feet. From on high, from dawn, many … I would fear no one, since you have become my hope. Why do I tremble at a mortal man? God has become my hope. They always hated our words in their hearts; they always devised evil plans against me, always keeping watch on our heel. As they lay in ambush to destroy my dear heart … I declared to you, O Lord, our sweet life, and you set my tears before your eyes, when I call, O King, on your helping hand. I knew that God, all-seeing, was mine. I do not tremble at a mortal man; God has become my hope. I have vows, by which, Blessed One, I will sing praise to you, because you loosed my heart, heavily pained, from death … you took my feet from slipping. May I sing the great light to God, the King of the living.

This little song too is David’s, when … Saul … he cried the fifty-sixth song. Be gracious to me, all-seeing King, and pity me, because I always keep my dear heart very confident in you. Trusting in the shady shelter of your wings, may I call with prayers to the most high God, the King, … for whose sake I bring all life-giving gifts. And he gave those who trample me to reproach … He sent his truth and his compassionate counsel, and rescued my heart from the midst of destructive whelps. I myself lay down, troubled by chilling ruin. Men whose teeth are shield and dart, … and whose tongue is altogether like a sword. And may your unspeakable glory reach over all the earth. … fell into the pit … they set before my eyes. My heart is ready, All-seeing One, my heart is ready; my glory will sing you, and in … Awake for me, honoured and ageless glory of wisdom; awake for me, lyre and psaltery of my hymns. I will cry to the peoples a resounding word to you, O Lord, and sing a lyre-struck praise to many peoples. You have mercy above the heavens, and your truth flies over against the clouds. And may your unspeakable glory reach over all the earth.

Never to destroy … this is the fifty-seventh hymn. Do you truly speak holy words, and do you direct straight justice for mortals, sons? … devising on earth; from the belly they have wandered, always speaking lies. Like a deaf asp, … nor does it care for … of the wise man. God has broken the tooth in their bitter mouth. They become blameworthy in vain, as water goes past. They forgot the fire of the sun that came upon them. Before your thornbush knows its thorns, … may [the righteous] wash his dear hands in the blood of the sinner, declaring that the fruit of the righteous is glorious, that God is the avenger of the works of mortals on earth.

Blameless David, writing for the inscription of a pillar, … to have a blameless end of hymns; bearing …, but … of former … so that in return for good things … death …; and this is the fifty-eighth hymn. … a free day for me; but also from destructive murderers … my heavily pained heart, which they tracked before, O Lord, may you save quickly. Having run without lawlessness, I found the way ready. Arise, O King, stand beside me, and see the work … May you stretch your all-seeing eye over all kinds of nations. Their speech is unheard, but on their lips is a sword …, so that anyone may hear; but you will laugh sweetly at them. May you despise the races of mortals for their evil transgressions. I will keep my strength for the very glorious King, because God always fights mightily for me. May you subdue … under our eyes, not killing them, so that they may not utterly forget your law; but may you easily scatter them with great force and strength … the transgression of their mouth, and the word of their lips … whose end … from curse and … may an end, and the limit of life, come to them in their wrath. … because God reigns over Jacob … he himself … your glorious strength, because you are my God, and you yourself have become my avenger, and you have been a ready tower to me in the day of evil … our King has become my mercy. [59] This inscription is for joy over events beyond what the king expected … the coasts of the Philistines …, destroying the lands of the Syrians, … to the general to sack swiftly …, and he sings the fifty-ninth song. O King, you cast down and thrust away all of us; being angry, you pitied after irresistible wrath … and hear my voice. The Lord spoke a word in agreement with his holy one … but Judah is my glorious king …; foreign races were subdued under our feet. In the mighty King let us accomplish ready force.

… hear my …, highest Shepherd, and stretch your far-seeing eye upon my prayer. In need I cried, O Lord, from the ends of the earth … lifting … upon the rock of my heart. You were my leader, since you have become my hope, my tower in the strife of attacking destroyers; and may you cover me with the divine shelter of your wings, because, Blessed One, you heard our … Day upon day may you grant to the king the paths of life; from generation to generation may he find … firm near God. Who … his truth and mercy together? I will always cry to my King with the dear lyre, until I pay my vows, Blessed One, day upon day.

… he wrote a revel for David, singing this sixty-first of the songs. Surely our heart will be subdued … for the help of the King is my light, because he himself is my God, and he stands over my strength; my defence, and I never expect to be a sinner. How long do you fight against a man and slay all …? I ran in thirst; and they considered how to make me inglorious; praying with their tongues, they struck with curses in their breasts. My soul, fall before the King; be subdued, trusting in God, because he has become the life-giving support of my hope. For he himself is my God, and has become my saviour. My defence: who could drive me from my dear nurse? My glory and light are under the commands of the Lord; my hope awaits the King, and the strength of help, because God has always been our helper. Yet the whole race of mortals is vain …: never keep a mind concerned with unjust things, nor set a rapacious heart on the goods of others. The King spoke once, and they heard two such things with their ears: that strength belongs to God, and that mercy is the Lord’s. You will give to all, O Lord, a reward worthy of their works.

A famous hymn of David in the desert of Judea; this is the sixty-second. In the twilight night, Blessed One, Blessed One, … and my soul longed for you, and my flesh still more, through a rough and waterless land, utterly desert. To you, Blessed One, in the holy place I appeared thus very confident, longing to see your power and glory. Your mercy, O Lord, is better than life … with our lips … your glory … of gladness my mouth always … If I remembered you on my bed, I fed my heart from dawn on your cares, and may I rejoice in the shelter of your wings. … following, my dear heart was supported; and your right hand … me. But those in vain sought to destroy my soul … they will be a terrible prey and portion for foxes. But the king will rejoice in God in his dear heart; and everyone who swears by him will be praised with immortal glory; for every violent mouth of the slanderers has been shut.

The sixty-third revel came to be. Hear my supplication, O Lord, when I pray to you; may you free my soul from … You hid me far from the evil ones going in a herd, from the multitude whose mind cares for lawless works. Nor do they fear in heart, striking him suddenly. They said: Who could see their dark work with his eyes? From below a man will come forward, having a knowing plan. Thus they shot arrows like a child … All were stirred up together who saw them. What mortal did not see, and seeing did not tremble in heart? … the righteous … in the hopes of the King, and boundless praise increases for all the upright.

… and, Jeremiah, cry out how … the day of slavery …, and the glorious people for the sake of their … This is the sixty-fourth hymn. To you, Blessed One, an unspeakable hymn is fitting in Zion, and in Jerusalem you receive the prayer paid back. Hear the supplication; all human flesh beseeches you. May you have a merciful heart for us in our distresses. Blessed is he who, chosen beforehand, dwells in houses beside you. Let us fill our dear heart with the good things of your house; your undefiled temple is to be admired for righteousness. The hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off on the sea; by your might, Blessed One, making the mountains shady, girded with your unapproachable strength as with a girdle — may the races of mortals be stirred, may they carry fears in their hearts; you will delight the rising of dawn and the evening together. … pregnant with good fruits … and as God you set forth ready food for them; gladden, O Lord, the furrows of your earth that bear fruit; and may the ground bring forth varied fruit for it. May you praise, O Lord, the crown of the year of your goodness, and the ground will be filled with your fat season. May the hills on high clothe themselves with joy.

He will not greatly marvel; for the song knows this end … this is also the sixty-fifth song. All the earth, shout a song to God the King; sing God-pleasing glory with praises upon his works. Say: Very wondrous are the works of your God. Sing to me, all the earth, and kneel to God; let all who sing, O King, … your name … Come, friends, look at the famous works of the great God; he made the sounding rivers paths for feet. There let us rejoice together in the immortal King … to their ruler and strength. The races of mortals … of the King; let not those who … think great things … who set my heart so as to be among the living, fixing the footstep of my feet unshaken in all things, … knowing well, as a smith [tries] silver in fire; and you held us in the deceitful net even against our will; … you set cares upon [our] backs … you brought us out … which, though worn down, I said before that I would fulfil: marrowy sacrifices burning with fire, and rams … and the fragrant smoke of incense. Hear me, all who fear the Lord, how many good things he has fashioned for our soul. I cried to the Immortal with my tongue … [the] Lord … hear me crying. Therefore the All-seeing heard our voice, nor turned his face away from my supplication. Praised is he who did not drive away mercy and my prayer.

… a royal hymn came to be, having the sixty-sixth song. … so that we may recognize your way on earth, your averting light among foreign nations. The peoples will sing your glory, Blessed One most high; let your resounding glory be the care of all peoples … may you lead … to walk in the dear land. The peoples will praise your glory, Blessed One …; let your resounding glory be the care of all peoples. The life-giving earth has brought forth its fruit; may our God grant us the most gracious praise.

A hymn struck from the songs of wise David, having the sixty-seventh place. … thus may they fail, helpless, like smoke. As when wax melts with flaming fire, so may sinners perish from the eyes of the holy. But let men who interpret justice be glad, always rejoicing before the divine eyes. Sing to the King, and sing his divine name; … a gracious road over … Immortal, this one is immortal, and his name has become Lord; and may … rejoice near the divine face. Let all be stirred through his … the leader of widows and … He himself grants those of one manner to dwell in houses; … he loosed the fettered swarm, and leads the dead from tombs to the light of life. How did he once traverse the glorious ground of the desert? The whole earth was shaken, and the blazing heaven poured down before God at Sinai; may the much-prayed-for ground hear. Willingly, O King, send good rain to your land; for you set it firm again when it thought it would perish, and the races of your flock dwell around it. … mighty ones signify; may the Lord direct the word … of the son, who will share the spoils of the house with the noble one; like the silver wings of a dove, the fair wings of a pigeon, … when the Immortal sends his kings upon it, snow covers its body on Salmon. The divine mountain, the flowering mountain, has become very fat; a fat mountain, like curdled cheese. Why do you watch all the curdled mountains? This is the mountain where God is pleased to dwell; there the Blessed One will always fix his mighty tent. The chariot of God is countless, and many are the dancers upon it. There the Blessed One, among … of Sinai … Let the Lord, good and highest, be praised always; praised always the Lord will be called, day upon day … The work of my King is to help those in need; the Lord alone has known how to save even from death. Yet may he shatter the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of those whose heart is sinful in their minds. Again I will go back from under the barren sea, so that you may dip your undefiled foot in blood, the tongue of your dogs from your enemies, and of himself … mortals saw … paths, the steps of the King in the holy … Sing to the faithful, dear Lord in the tents. Their leaders were those who formerly ruled Judah, … together champions and … Kings [will bring] gifts to the much-famed God … the nations of bulls go …, so that those to whom there was openly a price may be shut out … will hasten from the cities of Egypt; the race of Ethiopians will stretch out hands to the Immortal. Sing to the King from everywhere on earth … from pole to pole of the rising … may they utter dear praise with a life-giving voice. He holds magnificent glory always upon Israel, … and his strength is admirable together with the clouds of the air. The Immortal is wonderful to his holy ones … May the Lord grant strength and good might to Israel.

… a hymn of David’s heart … Save me, O King, from the waters which have come about my heart. Fixed in the wooded depth, in the deep of life, … seized me. I lost the light, waiting for the Lord God with my eyes. Those who hate me in vain are more than my hairs … plunder, which I myself did not learn … You know, O Lord, what I did … Never, O Lord, let shame seize those …; nor let any man who longs for God hear blame … I became … and to my … and a stranger to the sweet … I am stung in heart by the reproaches of your enemies … and they contrived that I should fast for reproaches … I put on my graceful garment as a mourning garment; but even so I became … Sitting before the gates they sang about me, and played the lyre at me, heavy with much wine. … The season, O Lord, when you may willingly be present openly to me. Hear in the abundant rush of your mercy; may you grant me, O Lord, the great light of your truth. Save me from the mud, so that I may escape through the mire … nor let the boundless pit put its mouth about me. In the multitude of your mercies stretch out your all-seeing eye; never turn your face away from your servant … our enemies, O King … For you know my shame and reproaches and great blushing; before you are all who care for my ruin. My soul expected blame and abuse in its heart. Nor did any man come to share speech with me in my pains, nor did I find whence there might be comfort for our ruin. Let a net of many folds be made for them instead of a table, … and a deceitful snare and a reward upon their work; and may you subdue their backs continually with toil; and may you always prepare heavy-angered wrath against them, and may the onrush of your turbid anger surround them. Let their many-giving dwelling be desert among them, nor may anyone find an inhabitant in their halls, because they greatly persecuted him whom you struck, adding pains to our wounds and pains. Nor let them, trusting in righteousness, come to your seat, nor ever be counted among the dwellers of righteousness. I am poor, and brood over countless cares; but I hold the King as my champion … Dancing, may I hymn the divine and praised name, and exalt him continually … above a calf, to the King, because the immortal King … nor did he thus abandon a man fettered in evils. Let the heavens and the earth around dance to the King, the boundless sea and all that the swell of the sea nourishes, because the immortal King will save Zion; and those who dwell in it will possess the whole of it by lots, and the race of his servants will hold all of it.

He who knows all … This hymn is the sixty-ninth. Let shame seize as many as long to destroy my heart; let shame seize at once those who rejoice at my ruin. Let joy and gladness attend the holy race … your averting light … of the poor man, Blessed One, and …

The sons of great-hearted Jonadab, whom formerly … led into the day of slavery, … a clear song of the decade … since you are my hope … Care for me, Blessed One, in your righteousness, and guard me. Be [my] God, as is due, firm like a house where one can escape evil; you yourself are my bronze-founded seat and steady defence … from the hand, O King, of the evildoing man, from the unjust hand … and my hope, Most High, always … I am very confident in you from my mother’s womb; you yourself were my shelter in my dear mother’s belly. In you, Best of all, is … but you appeared to me as a strong helper among them. Let my mouth be full of graceful songs on every side, so that, Blessed One, I may sing your ageless glory, singing your magnificent praise all day. Do not let me go, Undefiled One, on the evil threshold of old age; when I lose my dear strength, then do not let me go; because evil and hostile men said these things to me … the guards of our … came and considered, saying that the Immortal has let go his servant: “Hasten, and seize him, since there is no helper for him.” But you, King of all, never turn far from me. Let shame seize as many as strike my heart with evils; let blame and blushing seize as many as think evil of me. But may I be very confident in God the King, and I will sing to him a praiseworthy hymn still more than before. Our mouth will declare your righteousness; I will sing your immortal light all day. Ignorant of trade and free from ruin, I will go confidently to the temple of the Immortal. I will remember your righteousness alone, O King. You taught me from youth what is lawful, immortal Shepherd; therefore I will cry out your wondrous works even until now, proclaiming your strength and lovely righteousness. Who indeed is like you, who made so many cares for me? And turning me back again, you gave unspeakable strength of life; you called me from the bottom of the dark earth of the deep. … Indeed I will sing you, Blessed One, … singing greatly about you with my lips and soul, which you freed, O King, from destructive diseases. And my tongue too will sing your righteousness, when those who seek my pain are put to shame.

This was then untitled among the children of the Hebrews; … of the [seventh] decade, and first. Give your righteousness to the king’s son, so that they may judge your people in righteousness. Mighty peace for the mountains and the hills together … to help the sons of … when they are stirred up … may he come like rain onto fleece, as when heaven quietly casts snowflakes on the earth. This day will then be the mother of righteousness and lovely peace, as long as the strength of the moon shines … and from the holy rivers to the countless ends of the earth. The races of Ethiopians will swiftly bow the knee to him; his enemies, subdued, will lick the dust around him. Islands, … gifts, and bring them, rulers of Tarshish. May all the kings of the whole earth bow the knee to him together; may he set the neck of all kinds of nations under the yoke, since he freed the poor man from the hand of the mighty, and the one hurt by poverty, who had no defender near. From interest and from unjust force … them … and their admired name will appear before him. May they call on the King with unceasing prayers for him, and sing to him all day with good revels. On the highest mountains there will be a famous seat of the earth; may they spring up from the city like the grass of the whole field. The divine name is praised for unceasing generations; before the sun the famous divine name remains, … and before the life-bearing moon. May the nations of the earth take thrice-desired glory around him; may all nations always call God most blessed. Praised always is the immortal God of Israel, who alone always performs wondrous works. The divine name is praised …, now and hereafter and for generations to come. May the glory of God fill the whole earth; so be it.

The divine mind of David ceased from songs, … and cried out by the divine spirit, sending forth the second hymn of the seventh decade. … And my feet were nearly shaken by necessity, and the footsteps of my foot were sliding here and there, because in my heart I envied sinners, for whom fate has always been inescapable and without return, … and mighty scourges … they are always without experience of toils; nor would they be subdued like men, as is due; … like some fat … will go forth … They set their violent mouth even to the gates of heaven, … their tongue … over the whole circle of the earth. Therefore my people will turn back here again, and full days will appear among them. And I said: How then will God perceive these things in his heart? … if truly the King is most high and understanding, how are these interpreters of transgression glad? Perhaps I said in vain that I kept a holy mind, washing [my hands] clean in most undefiled water, subdued daily in body by the scourge, … struck in heart by mighty rebukes … whence shall I speak so clearly? I melt together with the works of the generation of your children; and this toil appeared before my eyes, and I inquire into the last end of their chambers. You gave them toil worthy of their deceitful works; whence were they suddenly subdued, overpowered thus? As a feeble dream of beds when one wakes, so may you deprive them of their form in your city, because my heavy-angered spirit burned in my heart. But I, subdued by the scourge, did not know in my heart; I became like a beast with you, highest Shepherd, … always caring for good things with your eyes. What portion is mine in the heavenly halls? Or what did I wish to have more than you on earth? My heart and my body melted, immortal Shepherd; but for me it has become good to draw near to the King, and to set my unceasing hope in the immortal God, so that I may sing your praise, O Lord, in the gates of Zion.

… against the flocks of your sheep was your wrath armed? … rescue the sceptre of your …, the famous mountain of Zion, where you dwell in famous halls; … boasted in the middle of your feast. They did not know their own signs, setting signs …, breaking with axe and the tools of a craftsman …; and besides, burning your whole God-pleasing temple, they made your undefiled name profane on the ground … whom, gathering in heart, [they said] these things: “Come, let us stop the feasts of the Blessed One on the earth.” No longer is the Lord God an overseer for us, nor is there a prophet. Say, Blessed One, how long will the hostile man increase his insolence … the hostile man … your name? Why have you so turned away your averting hand, and laid your right hand in the middle of your bosom? God has always ruled, even before human life; the boundless sea is firm by your strength; and taking it you gave it as a feast to the peoples of the Ethiopians … wintry rivers and springs … and the sounding stream of rivers … Day together with night are the possessions of your command; your tireless hand made all the ends of the earth …, O King, of the works you created … formerly the royal might, and a people of evil counsel greatly provoked the Lord. Do not give up to beasts my heart, which is cared for by God; … of your servant, O Lord, look … Let the poor and needy, O Lord, sing your name. To you, Blessed One, comes up the arrogant insolence of the enemies.

Never destroy the good guardians of song; this fourth hymn upon seven wise decades came to be. When your season appears, I, Blessed One, will judge uprightly. The earth melts together with all its dwellers; I … its tireless pillars. And to the wicked [I said] not to lift the horn at all, nor to raise the horn on high beyond due measure, nor against the Immortal …: neither from the glorious east nor from the west, nor from the tree-clad mountains of the desert. For God is always …: he set one low, and lifts another on high. Let all the servants of wickedness drink together; but I will rejoice among them continually; I will play sweetly on the lyre to the immortal God; and … all the horns of the overweening, so that only the horn of the pious may be exalted.

… of the decade, and fifth. The King alone has become conspicuous in Judea; … in lovely Zion his dear and undefiled house; there … the strength of bows, shield and sharp sword, and the unshakable battle-cry. You shine glorious light from immortal mountains … pouring out helpless sleep, they found nothing … men confident in their hands; a sleep without waking took all the horsemen. You, Blessed One, are dreadful; who could match your might? … your wrath has exceeding strength … from heaven … justice to mortals … and the sweet remnant of thought will keep feast to you. Pray to the Immortal and give him gentle vows; let all who serve God bring famous gifts to the mighty one, to whom the fate of the strength of rulers is a care.

He cried the sixth song upon the holy seventh decade. I sent up our cry to the King in my need; with my hands I prayed to the immortal God in the day of toil, going near through the night, and I was not deceived; … my heart endured, though it was stirred. … the most ancient day of life in my heart; and, remembering the years, I sang of former generations. All night in my heart many cares …, and my mind searched always, seeking: Will he forget the human race …? Or will he no longer remember those whom he planted? Now, hardly beginning to think rightly in my heart, I recognized it; I remembered the works of the immortal King. Immortal One, your path is always in the undefiled place; what god is like our Lord? The Lord alone is God, doing very famous wonders. You revealed your force to all peoples together … A terrible crash rose through the clouds of the air; and your arrows sped here and there; nor will the footstep of the King be clear to men. Leading the peoples as one shepherds fair sheep …

Look with your eyes, my people, at the God-pleasing ordinance … The works of the ancients are not hidden from their sons, and how great a strength he showed together with wondrous works; and he gave a famous law to mighty Israel, which the Lord formerly established for the fathers, so that another generation might learn all these things afterwards, the sons whom they would beget in later generations, so that they might set their hope on the immortal King, and not forget the works of their God the King, but track the commands of the Blessed One in their hearts, and not become at all like their dear fathers. But O shuddering and crooked generation of mortals, O generation whose heart has always been evildoing in mind, which did not find a faithful mind toward its God … they fled from the battle, turning their backs badly; nor did they wish to serve under the bonds of the King, but forgot the good benefaction of God, nor were they bent in counsel by so many wonders in the land of Egypt, over flowery Tanis; how, breaking the sea in two, he led the peoples, setting the dense stream here and there like a wineskin; and by night he led them over the mountains by the light of a torch … the shameless rock in the desert; you would say, seeing it, that as much drink seemed to creep up from the deep as the water he brought out of the holy rock, and a great stream with ever-flowing … They provoked the wrath of the heavenly King, … testing the heart of the Immortal, demanding food that pleased their ruin. “For surely, since he brought waters out of the solid rock, …” — because they did not trust the heavenly King, nor did they hold counsel at all about the divine light. … sweet manna known to eat; … he sent forth heavenly … for mortals to eat; God granted them a plentiful wayside feast. The breath of the south wind … he handed them flesh like dust of its own accord, and it fell suddenly among the assembly of men, round about …, directing … of many-sown … Feasting together, all were filled with food; and he granted them, in their desire, the feast of their heart. The feast was not yet finished, and their heart still lacked satiety, when the ready wrath of the Immortal came upon them … But not even then did they forget their evil-devising …; they wasted away thus in years swiftly chased away. Wretched ones, then … the Lord; from dawn, going, they cried to him as helper, … what he had given them, granting them a day of freedom. But they loved him with the tips of their lips; for they did not have upright hearts nor thought. But you, O King, always have a compassionate counsel …, how you swiftly restrain your wrath when it is kindled; for you know what the race of feeble mortals is like, whose life cannot be taken back once Hades holds it. How often they armed themselves, provoking him in the desert, and stirred his heart in waterless places, testing the might of the most high God against what is right, and provoking the Undefiled with words … wild … For the path of men does not hold back … How they forgot the toils of his life-giving hand, how he rescued them all from the Egyptians, how he made unspeakable signs in Egypt … and over the plain of Tanis. Water was blood, and it denied its former form, and … falsified its sweet taste. First the dog-fly, all-devouring, went over the land; the frog, coming next, then sacked the fields; … the locust … the labours of the land; and the burning flame consumed their possessions. But even so he did not cease, always increasing his wrath upon them, wrath and dreadful anger together with grievous toil. With stirred heart he made a path of much pain; and he bound even the field-ranging herds with destruction. The earth lamented the fate of as many firstborn as … But the Lord rescued his people like fair sheep, shepherding them like a splendid flock on the long mountains, trusting in hope, and …; and the great gulf of the sea covered their enemies. They walked by the commands of the Immortal to the mountain, the famous mountain which his dear hand had acquired before. And the Lord drove out the former inhabitants from the land, and bringing these in, divided the fields by lot … by tribes … taking away their heart, from their former fathers lawless works …, like a bow …; and they provoked his heart with their idols. And he gave their beauty as prey to enemies. The sword no longer ceased, always slaying them; divine fire devoured the young men pitiably … and he gave them reproach for unceasing generations. And he chose the famous tribe of godlike Judah, the divine mountain of Zion, which he loves in his heart. Then the Lord chose David, his servant, and called him well from the many sheep-givers; and he shepherded them justly with the gentleness of his heart, and led his people with the wisdom of his hands.

… the clear eighth song … Savage races have come upon your portion, Most High, and defiled your undefiled temple with lawlessness. They made Jerusalem like a guard-hut for fruit; they gave the remains of your workers to the birds of the air; they made the flesh of your holy ones prey for beasts. Like water on the ground they poured out the blood of your servants … like laughter and a dreadful plaything to those around. Blessed One, how long do you remain angry with us, and your wrath stirred continually like a torch? Pour out wrath on the races that did not know your glory, and on the kingdoms which … Do you yourself, O Lord, forget former follies; send your compassions swiftly, Blessed One, as helpers to us; for we alone have become very poor among all. Being the only defender, God, may you always help us; rescue your suppliants, O King, for your honour’s sake. Let them never say: Where then is their God? May the avenger of the blood of your servants, which they poured out before, be seen openly among the nations before our eyes … And as great as is the force of the Immortal’s arm … turn back sevenfold dreadful things into the bosom of outsiders; for we are your people, O Lord, and the flock of your pasture. From generation to generation … your glory.

A noble revel of works … Shepherding the honoured …, Blessed One, you who lead Joseph like a sheep and make him increase. Raise up your might, and come to save us. Turning easily, may you call us back again, O King, and send forth the light of your face upon our life. Hear, Blessed One: how long are you angry with one who prays? Giving us tearful bread as is due, and measuring out drink, making us drink more of griefs, you gave us as a cause of strife among opposing men … may you send the light of your eyelids on our life. And cutting out …, you planted …, the glorious nations of the earth; and you planted roots, and they filled the whole field. Countless mountains were covered with shady bushes, and the climbing [vines] covered the cedars of the Blessed One to the top. Why, O Lord, have you torn down its safe fence with your hands? A terrible [boar] coming from the thicket … May you stretch, O Lord, your all-seeing eye from heaven, and make it ready, raising it up as is due; for it has become the much-loved work of your right hand. [The dear son of man, whom you yourself knew to be strong.] Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, the dear son of man, whom he himself knew to be strong … you will call us back again, and may you send the light of your eyelids on our life.

Taking up a clear psalm, give the sweet drum, … and the lovely psaltery along with it. At the beginning of the month, dear men, sound the trumpet, on the day when the beauty of the feast is conspicuous. Israel received this always famous decree; Joseph received it as a witness of ordinances, coming formerly from the cities of Egypt. Then how did you cry? And I came to you as defender, and you did not escape my notice, hidden in the dark storm … fire. And I tested you, thirsty, at the water. Hear, my people, and I will tell you what is due in words … of my words … No other new god will be yours among those asked, nor … a foreign god. For I myself am your God and ageless King; and if you need anything, open wide your mouth, and I will fill it. The foolish people did not hear our words; therefore I let them go to do what pleased their mind. For if the people, useless to my voice, had heard, if they had run in our footsteps, I would have brought their opponents to the ground, even without toil, and destroyed those who hated them before with my hand. Enemies lied to the mighty King; but the season of their life’s nurture will be continual; and you, Immortal One, gave them life-giving wheat, and to have satiety of pure honey from the rock.

The first song upon the eighth decade, of Asaph. Standing in the middle, the Lord judges the blessed ones. How long will you not judge by the ordinances of undefiled justice? Direct the ordinances of justice for the wretched and the poor … rescue the helpless and …, and from the grievous hand … They, childish, did not consider in their hearts nor understand; therefore let [the foundations] be stirred about the bottom of the whole earth. I myself said willingly that you were [gods] before the Blessed One, and children of the glorious most high King. But you die like mortals who have perished beneath the earth … and you yourself will possess all the nations by lot …

The second hymn of the eighth decade, of Asaph. Immortal One, who will be like you? Never be silent, nor be gentle in heart; … the din of your enemies frequently … against your holy ones … “Come now, dear men, let us destroy them, and let us … their name from the earth” … the tribes of the Idumaeans and the sons of Ishmael; … Moab, and the overweening …; nor was the boundless people of the Assyrians lacking. Do as you once did to Sisera and to Midian, or at the wintry stream of Kishon … like dust which the wind swiftly drove over the earth … all who are rulers among them, who formerly planned to seize the most beautiful altar of God. May you make them all, O Lord, like a round wheel, or like burning stubble before … and the forest; so, Blessed One, pursue them with your storm; fill all their faces with shame … your name. Let blame seize them all, and let them perish together in their folly. Let them know in their hearts, as they perish, your divine name, because you alone are most high over the whole earth.

… of the decade, and the third was sung. With soul and limbs I exult in God who is. For the sparrow found a home dear to its heart, and the turtledove found a fitting nest for its young: your altars, Blessed One of powers; you are God and King. Most blessed are all who have your houses; blessed is the man who has found good strength with you, looking in his heart and driving up even to heaven, in the hollow of weeping, where he found a famous place. The giver of the ordinance will grant blessings as is due …; the God of gods will be seen with eyes in Zion. Hear, Blessed One of powers, … I pray to you as your servant; receive now my voice with your ears. … having become my …, look upon … do not pass by, O Lord, the face of your Christ. To rest one day in your courts surpasses thousands. Better even to be called pitiable in the halls of God. Because God … mercy and truth …, he himself will always grant glory and his grace; nor will he let the guileless ever be without his good things. Immortal One — for you alone have always been the Blessed One of powers — blessed is this man whose hope in his heart [is in you].

Again, O King, after cares you have loved your land; you covered … of all kinds before your eyes. But, my light, turning, be gracious again to them …; turning, may you grant us … for the sake of life … I will hear what God himself will speak out to me, planting peace for all his peoples … and mind to his holy ones, and to those who turn back to him again. Yet … those who fear his light …, so that he may stretch out famous glory on our land. Truth and mercy … each other …; peace kissed lovely righteousness; graceful truth sprang up from the earth, and lovely righteousness looked down from heaven; and indeed the King … gentleness …; righteousness will walk before God the King.

A fifth song upon the eighth decade … Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear my voice, because I have become needy and poor. Guard my heart, O Lord, for I am holy to you … Save your servant, since you are my immortal hope … to me crying to you all day (for I sought your might), and my heart. Hear my prayer, and see the sound of my voice. There is no other among the immortals like God, nor do any works appear like your works. All the nations of men which you made with your hand [will come], glorifying your name and your ageless strength, since you yourself are great and do immortal wonders. You alone, O Lord, have always been most high; may I warm my heart, trembling at your divine name. With unceasing heart, Blessed One, … you … Against me, O King, lawless men rose up, and the assembly of the mighty tracked my heart, nor did they set your might before their eyes. And you, Blessed One, are very compassionate and merciful, and the giver of much mercy, and alone true. May you hand your highest strength to your servant; may you make for us, Blessed One, a sign for good …; you are consolation and my helper.

The sweet sixth song upon the eighth decade. The fair foundations of God are on undefiled mountains; God … the gates of Zion always … We hear glorious things about you, immortal city. I will remember Rahab and Babylon before my friends. Foreigners and Tyrians and the famous tribes of the Ethiopians, going there all together, made a common dwelling. A man [will call] Zion his honoured mother; for indeed she bore a conspicuous and true man; and the Lord … of peoples and of the mighty rulers whom she bore. And those who will dwell in her, always rejoicing …

This too for … upon the decade … and all night to you … Would that my prayer may come before your eyes; would that you would incline your ear, O Lord, to my supplications, because my helpless heart is laden with pains, and my dear life has come near to nether Hades. I thought I was like those rushing into the pit; I became like a mortal for whom no helper appears, though I myself am always free among the dead … to whom you no longer turn, nor …; for they too have been driven out from your glorious hand … they laid me in the pit that destroys men … beside the shadowy place of death. Your heavily painful anger is set firm upon me … Then how they forced …, and did not wish me to follow …; and from feebleness even the light of my eyes was dimmed. But I called you as helper in so great a necessity, and my hands were lifted to you all day. Will you do your wonders among the uncared-for dead? Will anyone … your …? Therefore, while living, I follow you and beseech you as helper. Why do you send my gentle prayer far off …? From youth I have been poor and in …; from on high again I became low and helpless in works. Your frequent angers, Blessed One, came upon me, and of your might … they encircle me like deep-flowing water, surrounding me on every side all day, here and there. You have removed my neighbour from me, and my faithful companion together …

… mercy, O King, your … you will fashion your mercy all days, and set your truth ready above the sky. I swore to David, and he has always become my servant; and I will make your much-glorious throne for ever. The heavens will sing, Blessed One, your wondrous works, and your truth … of the holy. Who, dwelling in the clouds, will be like the Lord? Or who will ever be like you among the sons of the Immortal? God has always been glorious in the counsels of the holy: how great, how fearful, and trembling took all around him … You cast down the arrogant man like one wounded; laden with strength you scattered the hateful … The heavens and the earth are possessions of your command, and you yourself made the north and the unspeakable sea … always … in your strength; your right hand … with boldness; righteousness and judgment stand around your seat; truth and mercy run before you … the people that knows … your ageless light will lead them, always rejoicing, for whom your name is delight, and resounding glory under …, because you have become their glory of exceeding strength; and boldly in you may they still exalt their horn. On earth there always is the fence of the Immortal’s help … Then you spoke these things to your children, saying: I have laid might upon the mighty one, and granted strength …, having chosen the best from the people; I found David, my dear servant and fellow-worker; … his very beautiful body with oil …, and my arm will always urge him on. Never will enemies have pleasure over him, nor will a son of lawlessness convict him in his woes. And may truth and mercy run together with him, and in me he will have his boastful horn raised up. I will set his hand through the barren sea, and his right hand will rule above the rivers. He himself will call me his conspicuous father, having me as the defender of his light, and God. And I will set him as my dear firstborn son, high among all the most excellent kings. From generation to generation may his dear seed be firm, and his radiant throne as long as the days of heaven remain. But if his sons forget my ordinances, and become forgetful of our …, … with a sceptre I will look on their hateful works; nor will I first accomplish anything unjust against truth, nor against my covenant … His race will be blessed among all continually, being such as the full moon is, and the faithful witness dwelling in great heaven. … you made his temple profane on the earth, … those things by which he was formerly guarded; and these became most dreadful to him. You lifted up the right hand of those pressing him; nor did you come as helper to him in his need in battle, but … to the destroyers of battle … Ah, how much you destroyed his throne in a short season! Instead of crowns, shame held him down from every side. How long, Blessed One, … increasing your mighty wrath as a kindled torch? Did you then make the race of mortals in vain? What mortal will escape the force and bond of death, … calling back his dear heart? Where is the unspeakable strength of your former mercy … Nor forget your servants … of your Christ, and image … The Lord will be praised; he will be the God of Israel.

If it is lawful to call a mortal heavenly, Moses has always been the most faithful servant of the Immortal; … upon the ninth of the decade, the song. Blessed One, become a fence for us for unceasing generations, before the seats of the mountains, before even the support of the earth came to be … I will sing you as King of old and for ever. Do not turn me back and make man lowly again, commanding mortals to take life back again. Like yesterday, a thousand of your years are a day in your eyes, which, when it has passed, provided a watch in the night. Their works will be blameworthy for years. The early-born dawn will pass like a flower … For by your … we have become feeble, troubled when the King is dreadfully angry. You have set our lawlessness ready before your eyes; our life is the light of your face. And when you were wroth, we melted in our dear strength. The decades of human life’s time are seven; but if we live more years, beyond eighty, toil and labour are always the excess of life. Who has known in his heart the great strength of your anger? Who could number the joyless fears of your heart? … those whose hearts care for immortal wisdom … hearts with delight and gladness all days, for the sake of the days … beside you …, in return for the years in which we saw so many pains before. Look on your servants, Undefiled One, and your works; and may the … of the King appear, sung, to their children, to us …

Of fair-dancing songs, to the ninth decade. Force and tower …; and you are God to us, and the famous hope of help. May you keep your hope under immortal wings; may he arm you with truth as with a weapon. May you never fear the night-time fear, nor the work that creeps on in dark depths, nor … of the noonday demon. A thousand may fall at your left hand, and a myriad there at your right. But no one will ever be able to come near you. Since you yourself have become my life-giving hope, surely you carry your boldness with the Most High, Strong One. Never fear at all the coming necessity of evils, nor be distraught that your body may be subdued by the scourge; and, Blessed One, … in hands …, lest you ever strike your honoured foot on a stone. You will boldly tread on asp and basilisk, and trample with your feet the venom-shooting dragon and the beast. I will rescue him, whose heart cares for my hope, and I will clothe him well; for he has learned my name well. I will be near to the one in distress all days; and, rescuing you, … glory always …

The ninety-first, of the wise. This psalm is for the day of the Sabbath. … and your much-glorious name with the lyre, and your honoured truth through the night; for you have greatly [gladdened] me, Blessed One, by your works, and I will rejoice in my mind at your divine works. Who could hymn your boastful art? No foolish man will know these things in his heart, nor will one concerned with folly understand them, when he sees the unjust flourishing like grass …, so that they may always begin their own evil destruction. But you alone, O Lord, immortal, have become most high; … may the evildoing races of your … perish. And may my horn be lifted on high like that of the unicorn, and may grey old age flourish with rich oil. I saw with my eye the toilsome fate of my enemies. Then the holy mortal will flourish like a palm, as many as are planted in the divine houses, still full of richness in the season of old age; as is right, having experienced good things, they will declare each one, because God has always been an upright-minded King, nor does he hide an unjust mind in his wise heart.

The Immortal has reigned, and has put on his beauty … Immortal One, your throne is always most ready … All the lofty works of the sea are wonderful. Your testimonies, O Lord, have a concordant faith, for endless season and for long days.

The sweet third song upon the ninetieth. The Immortal is always the avenger among all, a King. Hear, Blessed One: how long will the wicked prevail by force? How long will the interpreters of transgression … belching with their tongue … of their heart, who set your people, O Lord, level with the ground by necessity, and, taking your inheritance, sacked it with evil … nor … the heavenly royal vengeance. But come, understand these works in your heart, you foolish ones, whose life was formerly in folly; gather your heart. Will he who gives hearing to others not hear more? Will the begetter of light not see the works of others? Instructing nations, does he not know how to rebuke wickedness, he who alone plants all thoughts in mortals? … having understood in his heart your law-bearing cares … planning, so that the season of wickedness … For he will never cast away his people from his face, nor overlook his perishing portion, until righteousness, which brings forth judgment, comes again. Who will arm me and rouse me to battle against the lawless? And my soul would have flown to be a fellow-dweller with Hades. For when, with failing mind, I expected flight, …; as much immeasurable grief as I bore in my pains, my heart was cheered by your consolations. Let not a lawless throne, O Lord, be near you … the soul of the holy … in vain, to stitch a fate somewhere with innocent blood. But the Lord most high himself has become a fence for me; God came ready as the helper of my hope; may he give them what is worthy of … and the Lord … them in their own works.

Come, exulting, let us rejoice in the Lord, … a paean to the immortal Shepherd of the world, because God increases great might among all, and he himself has become most kingly of all the blessed. He will never cast away his dear and gentle people, holding with immortal hand the famous ends of the earth. He himself made the sea and holds it with lordship, and fashioned the many-giving earth with his hands. Come, beseeching, let us fall at his knees; let us weep before God, and he will pity his work, because he himself is King of mortals and also God, and we are his people and the flock of his pasture. Today, if you hear the voice of the Lord with your ears, let no one’s heart be bronze and harsh, as when you provoked the heart of the Immortal with works … calling to justice with an unlying heart … as formerly in the rough desert of God, those who saw my works and might for forty years. Therefore I hated that destructive generation, and they did not at all notice our paths; I swore in my wrath that they should not see rest.

… this is the clear ninety-fifth song. Show his propitious light day upon day; declare the honoured wonders of God to the peoples, because he is great, and has always been praised, and holds the mightiest fear among all gods. All the gods of the nations were images of demons; but God made the bronze heaven by his counsel. Praise and great beauty are before his eyes; he fitted purity and conspicuous glory to his temple. Bring honour and glory to God the King of all; bring to the honoured Lord the glory that bears his name. Taking your sacrifices, go to his courts; pray in the holy court to the Shepherd of the world. Let all the earth be troubled before God the King. Say to the peoples: God rules among all; for he also set firm the circle of the earth, which time does not know how to shake. Let the sea be stirred, and all that the swell of the sea nourishes; then let the dense thickets and the forest rejoice together before God, as the King hastens to the earth. For he has come to judge wretched mortals, pouring out to the peoples an unbending tongue of truth.

When David received back his land … Rejoice, earth; he who reigns over the heavenly ones has ruled you; rejoice in splendour, islands of the grey sea. The Lord is near, covered by cloud and storm, … his throne under the justice of judgment over all, so that he may burn up the wicked here and there. The mountains melted like wax around the Lord; the starry heavens proclaimed his justice, and all saw the glory of the heavenly King. … as many as give glory to their images … Zion delights greatly in its heart … because of your mighty judgment, … because you alone were Most High over the ends of the earth. You who love God alone from the heart, set your cares … the All-seeing greatly loves the heart of his servants, and will always rescue them from the hands of the avenger; and delight from above has come to the heart of the upright.

… since he alone has made wonderful things with wise hands, and guards all with his much-glorious arm … he has made lovely righteousness rise. For he remembered in his heart the halls of Jacob; the famous ends of the whole earth openly perceived the averting light of the mighty King. All the earth, shout to the very glorious Shepherd, with trumpets of beaten metal (and the horn cried out its boom); shout before the immortal … Let the sea be stirred, and all that the swell of the sea nourishes, the whole circle of the earth and all who dwell on it. For he will go — rather, he has come — so that he may judge the earth well.

The sweet eighth song: the [Im]mortal God has reigned; … peoples, … sitting, he came upon the cherubim; let the support of the whole earth be shaken. The famous Lord is great among peoples and admired by the gods; let all together sing your ageless name. And the honour of the King always loves justice … his footstool, beseeching; for he is holy. Moses among the priests was great, and Aaron celebrated in song; … and he answered them with a word from the steady cloud. They became good guardians of the testimony of God, nor did they neglect the divine commands that they had learned. Immortal One, you gave them a ready ear from heaven, and your heart was always gracious to them; … always in the undefiled …, because the Lord has become undefiled among all.

All the earth, shout to the very glorious Shepherd. Rejoicing, place your neck under the yoke of the Immortal; hasten, glad, before the divine eyes; always perceive him in your hearts … He himself fashioned life for mortals, not we ourselves; he himself made us, nor are we sufficient of ourselves. And we are his people and the flock of his pasture. In the courts beseech God the King with song; sing the divine name, always gentle on earth, because he keeps mercy unceasingly among all; from generation to generation he bears an all-true counsel.

… sang this hundredth song. In one, O King, I will sing to you judgment and mercy. … when will you come to me, immortal Shepherd? I went with gentleness through the middle of the house; nothing at all lawless in …, but still … Never did a shifty counsel please me before. A dreadful serpent fled, and I remained ignorant of the deceitful. Like a destroyer of dear companions I pursued … with insatiable heart and … I did not wish to be a friend and table-companion at the feast. … on holy men … Nor did an arrogant man dwell in my houses, nor did one speaking injustice come before my eyes. … to subdue the servants … with destruction.

… the hundred and first song … Do not … your graceful … from me. When, Blessed One, I call, quickly incline your dear ear, because my life melted like smoke. I was struck like grass, and my heart withered; I forgot to give my belly the dear bread of necessity. … or the night-raven …, like a sparrow, sleepless, alone in a house. Those who praised me before swore an oath in vain … ashes like bread, and I drank a drink mixed with mournful tears … and of your wrath; lifting me up, you cast me down again from the sky. As a shadow, the days of our age come to an end, since you alone draw out a life that lives continually. Rising yourself, O King, … Zion; for this is the season to pity her, hard pressed; and indeed that season has come which she formerly received; because your servants … her stones … All the races will fear your name, O Lord, … God … fallen Zion, appearing openly to mortals on the earth … these things to me … and the people, coming to be by your hands, will cry to you, because he himself, stooping, watched from on high; from heaven he stretched his gaze toward his earth, so that he might hear the lament of those in fetters, and loose from bonds the dear children of those who had perished … and in Jerusalem a clear and celebrated praise …, when he gathers the people from all kinds of cities; and he will set his yoke on the neck of kingdoms. Tell me the few paths of our life …, cutting off my life before its season … And the heavens, Blessed One, are the works of your hands; they will perish, but may you remain imperishable for me; they will all change, rolled up like a cloak; but you yourself are imperishable, and your life will never cease … your sons always …

Of David, the second upon [the hundredth]. … your King continually … and all my inward parts, sing his undefiled name … your King continually … again you will grow young like an eagle … The famous Lord … mercy always …, showing immortal righteousness to all. God is compassionate among all and merciful, … of mercy, and has been gentle-hearted. He will not always keep chilling anger in his breast, nor did he do to us what we deserved … but as far as the great starry heaven is from the earth, … and as a father holds his heart gentle toward his children, … for God knew the work which he fashioned with his hands. Remember, King of all, that we are feeble dust … nor would [the wind] know its place, seeing it with its eyelids. The mercy of the King always attends those who tremble, and he will do fitting things for their sons’ sons, for those who care for the divine keeping of the covenants, nor have they forgotten continually … in the starry heaven the Blessed One …, and the great glory of his lordship rules over all … who care for the command of the King, whose ears were intent on … of the Immortal … whose strength is always held stretched out … your King continually.

The clear third song of David upon the hundredth. … your King continually … Immortal King of all, you greatly increase your glory; you have put on praise and conspicuous glory from every side, throwing about yourself, like a cloak, the undefiled great light, stretching out the great heaven to be seen like a hide … of the winds upon wings …, an army of straight-running spirits …, so that it may always bear and guard unshaken force … many waters will stand above the high-haired mountains. Mountains go up, and some low land is seen, there where you fixed the foundations of the places among them. You fixed a limit, Blessed One, which no other will pass, nor will they ever turn back to cover the dear earth. Waters will pass through the middle of the high-haired mountains; drink will appear for the beasts of the mountains through the thickets … every kind of wild ass … for you. Birds of the air besides will alight near them … your mountains, Shepherd. The earth will be filled with your life-bearing fruits, so that it may bring out of the earth fruit, honey-sweet grain, and give to the hearts of mortals much-gladdening wine … countless trees …, and the cedars of Lebanon, the works, Blessed One, of your hands. There is … of young sparrows … You yourself, O Lord, fashioned the moon as the merchant of seasons; the shining sun knew its setting. Night is the nurse of beasts, and beasts love the night, and whelps eager for their necessary prey, always seeking … from God. … of the sun they gathered on the earth, and made their bed by their thickets. But man goes back to his work, … awaiting the end of toil, the evening. You fashioned all things together with divine wisdom, Shepherd. The holy earth is laden with your measureless works, … the hollow of the boundless and broad sea. Ah, how many creeping things of the roaring sea are roused for you! You would marvel at living creatures, small mixed with greater … There is the dragon which you formerly fashioned to be a plaything. And all look to you to give them dear food …, and each … good gifts from you … and a terrible trembling holds them when you turn away your face … when you take away their breath they die, subdued, and at once waste away back into their mother earth. But if you give back their soul again … The glory of the Lord will be; ageless it will always be. The earth … under the gleams of your …; your mountains roar with smoke. But I will sing to the King continually … your King continually.

Psalm one hundred and … and beseeching the ageless name of the Lord … the works of God to the peoples … Our praise is upon the immortal King. Seek the King, from whom strength has come to you … of the tongue his just … The Lord himself shows righteousness among all, and the word which he commanded to generations …, swearing a great oath to Isaac his dear servant, promising to give him the whole land of Canaan. Their number was very small, and they themselves were few; and from the kingdom they went to another people. … his hand over them …; but he subdued kings for their sake, rebuking them. And Joseph, O Lord, entered the day of slavery …, until he hoped for the good end of his dreams. The Most Blessed himself inflamed his servant with the word. The lord of the Nile, commanding, loosed him from bonds, entrusting his house to be carried under his nod, and made him the famous leader of his kingdom, so that he might teach the champions of the Nile by his laws. From there Israel went to the Egyptian land … and he made him most mighty over his enemies. And God sent them his most wise servant Moses, and godlike Aaron, who had been chosen for him, and he accomplished the force of wonders in the land of Ham. There he sent darkness over the Nile land; and they counselled bitter things against the words of God. He turned their water, making it dark-red blood, and slew the fish of the black-dyed river. The earth sent up a race of water-nourished frogs; he spoke, and the dog-fly went over the halls of the lord, and gnats sacked the famous halls of the whole land; and flame devouring the land came as helper to the hail. Ah, how each lamented the fate of the firstborn, burying … of the departed generation. He led out the people laden with gold and silver, nor did they have any feeble companion among them; for all were struck in heart with hard-to-heal fear. … he led the people with a shady cloud; when they asked, a countless quail came; and he filled their heart with heavenly bread. Breaking the rock, he brought out a stream of rushing waters, and rivers babbled by force on waterless ground … for … in his heart … which the Lord formerly nodded to his … And he gave them the lands of many-sown races, and they divided the toils of other peoples, so that they might always remember righteousness and track the law of the heavenly King.

Who will sing the unshakable strength of my King, and cast his praise into the ears of all kinds of mortals? … for whom righteousness has always been within reach. Remember [me] in your goodwill toward the people, … of your suppliants, and grant us your famous overseeing light … they became ignorant of your wonders thus, nor did they consider in their mind your …, still breathing bitterness in mind at the Red Sea; but nevertheless they were saved by the help of their King, so that others too might know the great strength of the Immortal. Commanding, the Lord dried [a way] through the Red Sea, and saved them from hated destroyers; the deep-flowing swell of the sea covered the opponents, nor did any inhabitant from the enemies come as messenger to others. They then trusted the life-giving word of God, and … a praiseworthy hymn to him; but they quickly forgot his words, and falsified the counsel of the immortal God. They longed with longing in the evil place of the desert; they tested the King on waterless ground; but even so he granted the longing of their heart … the heart, which they themselves wanted. The shameless earth, gaping, swallowed Dathan …; burning flame consumed the tents, and flame burned the people that cared for transgression. They prayed in vain to an idol, falling at its feet. Fools! who exchanged their former glory, and forgot the might of the King steadfast in war, who formerly in Egypt accomplished boastful works, making fears for all mortals at the Red Sea. And he would have destroyed them all, since he said he would destroy all; … his servant Moses rose near, beseeching his hand, so that he might stop it from destruction. Nor ever … the lawful … of the Blessed One, but even in their huts … to hear God speaking. Therefore the King … his right hand, wishing to cast them down in the place of the desert, and to destroy their race among foreign nations, or … among many-sown cities. And for them insolence bore wrath, the mother of death from God. That man interceded, and the plague withdrew at his prayers; and he found from God a conspicuous reward of justice, from generation to generation continually, all days. The water of strife — you know how they stirred him, how Moses was hurt by the pain of the sinners, worn in heart by bitter griefs, who even unwillingly falsified his former faith. For they spared the nations which he told them to destroy, and set their neck under soulless idols; nor did they profit from them; they were pressed by evil necessity, sacrificing their daughters and sons to demons … and the land was reddened everywhere with the blood of those perishing, and with destructive lewdness; for so they cared. Angered, he … the arrogant … of his inheritance, and gave his dear servants into the hands of enemies; worthless, falling under foreign hands, they were often saved … For at once wonder holds me at their …, how the Lord softened his heart, and how plundering men before pitied them. Us, O King most high, … easily, gathering us from everywhere, wherever we have been scattered among peoples, so that we may eagerly sing your divine name. Praised always is the famous Lord of Israel, from generation to generation continually, all days. And all the people will say: Truly, so be it.

Let those say it, to whom God granted a day of freedom, and gathered them here from many-sown cities, some from the east, some from the western land, wandering through the boundless dry place of the desert, nor did they have a path to see to their city; they wasted with thirst together with pitiless famine; but the King rescued them from every necessity. … and may his wondrous works be the care of the race of mortals. From there they were subdued by helpless toil and ruin, nor did any helper of their weakness come to them. But the King rescued them from every necessity; he led them out from darkness and from death, breaking the mighty and unwearying bond of their limbs. The compassions of the King … and may his wondrous works be the care of the race of mortals, snatching all from the way of toilsome evil. But the King rescued them from every necessity … their heart … The compassions of the King … and may his wondrous works be the care of the race of mortals. … his works, rejoicing with new … Sailors who care for the force and the ships of the sea, whose toil rises through wave and unspeakable water, saw with their eyes the works of wise God, and all his wondrous things among the seafaring depths. You would say the broad heaven was at once mixed with the abyss. Trembling seized all, as one bound by wine; … they forgot, and wise skill did not appear. But the King rescued them from every necessity; again he calmed the waves with steady silence, and gladness seized all when they saw the fair-weather water, hastening into harbour under the commands of God. The compassions of the King … and may his wondrous works be the care of the race of mortals. And the waters came upon the waterless land like rivers, and good dwelling peoples held the cities. God praised the work, and the peoples increased, and herds of four-footed beasts were fed for them in pastures; … worn down and by helpless pains; manifest transgression will open its terrible mouth … Who, being wise, knows how to keep all these things in his heart, and to understand the mercy of the Immortal in his breast?

This is David’s hundred and seventh hymn. My heart is ready, All-seeing One, my heart is ready; awake for me, lyre and psaltery of my hymns. I will cry your resounding song, O Lord, to the peoples, and sing a clear-struck praise to many peoples. You have mercy above the heavens, and your truth flies over against the clouds. And may your unspeakable glory reach over all the earth … and hear my voice. The Lord spoke a word in agreement with his holy one: Ours is Gilead, and ours Manasseh; but Judah is my glorious king; foreign races were subdued under our feet. In the mighty King let us accomplish ready force.

The clear eighth song of David upon the hundredth. Do not at all, Blessed One, pass by my praise in silence, for the terrible sinner gapes his deceitful mouth at me; and trusting in hateful words they were provoked, and armed themselves in vain for destructive battle; those whom they seemed to love — they rather stitched evil for me. But I prayed, stretching my eye to heaven. In return for our friendship they chose evil enmity. May the lender track out all that is his, and may strangers be robbers of his toils. His dear children will be the song of evil destruction; he will utterly destroy his name, unseen and unheard, in a day. May the wickedness of his fathers be remembered before God; … of his hateful mother not cease … let them always remain before the King, and … them from the good earth, because he did not remember to do things worthy of mercy, pursuing in wickedness the needy and poor man … may he quickly receive the curse, fattening his bones, as is due, like oil; instead of a necessary garment may he always hold … and of his girdle, which he always girds for work. This is the reward of those who care to slander me to the King, and who care to fashion countless cares for my soul. But you, King of all, … for your sake … and I am poor, and do not … me … I was subdued, trembling in my dear limbs under strengthless famine, and my body was changed far from glistening oil. From then I became exceedingly blamed among all. But, Blessed One, may you come, God, as helper to me as I call, and grant me your mercy, O Lord, as helper, so that they may know the good help of your hand. They will curse, but may you give me blessed things. And your honoured servant … I will sing with songs upon my mouth, and in the middle of many I will hymn his glory, because he came as helper of the right hand …, so that he might free my soul from enemy men.

The clear song of David, the ninth upon the hundredth. God said to God: Sit at the right of my thrones, so that I may subdue your enemies under the footstool of your feet, … so that you may rule, O Lord, in the midst of your enemies. With you is the might of your rule, as you had it formerly; in the splendours of the holy you will hold firm glory. Fruit of my belly, you yourself were begotten before the morning star. The faithful Lord swore, and will not falsify his oaths: You will be a priest such as … was. Undefiled One, you have near your right hand …, and may he dash the heads of many on earth. He will drink the famous water of the torrent, walking his way …

An immortal Alleluia, the tenth upon the hundredth. With unceasing heart, O King, I will sing your praise …, of the immortal King always … The works of God are always praise and conspicuous glory. The King remembered his wonders in his heart; God is compassionate among all and merciful, eager to give them the conspicuous inheritance of peoples … and he always works truth … have the glorious faith of the King; the Shepherd commanded his covenant for ever … and the name of God has become famous. The beginning of heavenly wisdom was the fear of God, and … for mortals, the interpreters of wisdom. From generation to generation the immortal praise of God remains.

The first song upon the eleventh decade, Alleluia. … his race’s blood remains strong on the earth; wealth and glory will not cease from his house; … a great light rose out of darkness for the upright. God is compassionate and holy and merciful. … the man who lends to others … The turmoil of toilsome life will never reach him; … the memorial of the holy will be praised. He always has his heart ready in the hope of the King; he will have his horn lifted up with honour and dignities. Seeing these things, wrath will trouble the wicked man; the unfulfilled longing of the wicked man will perish.

… second after the decade … Sing the immortal King, wise children; the divine name will always be the care of hymns, now and hereafter for continual generations. From the rising of the shining sun to its setting … The King dwells above all kinds of peoples, and holds immortal glory above the heavenly floors. Who has become like the mighty King? … on high, yet looking at the lowliest things, ministering to earth and heaven with his eyes, he alone has known how to raise the poor man from the earth, to be a fellow with the rulers of the divine people; who gave the barren woman to dwell in houses …

… of the eleventh decade, and third. When mighty Israel came … became the honoured … of God. The barren sea fled when it perceived him, and the peaks of shaggy mountains were like lambs. Say, why, sea, were you cut asunder, fleeing thus? And you peaks of shaggy mountains, were you like lambs? The earth was shaken before the immortal God, who always … of great-hearted Jacob … Do not do these things for us; for what strength have we? But grant most high glory to your wisdom, and to your mercy, O King, and your true counsel. Let the races never say: Where then is their God? Our God always rules in heaven; he is fixed in heaven, but shepherds the works of the earth, doing whatever … in his heart. The idols of the peoples were gold and silver, … the elaborate works of wise hands, which have no voice, even if they have a mouth; nor do they bear light about …; they have ears only, and do not hear a cry, nor does the holy smell of the air come into their nostrils; they have no strength to grope, even if … hands, nor to set a footstep with feet on the fertile earth, nor do they breathe with the impulse of breath through the mouth. And all are confident in mind in such things. … set … on the Lord …, and he is their helper and immortal shield-bearer. The famous house of Aaron set its hope on the Lord; and he is their helper and … They set their hope on the Lord, those who care for the fear of God; and he is their helper and strong shield-bearer. The Immortal, remembering us, praised all; he praised all the people who care for the King of all, the whole age together, small with greater; he greatly increased all among our children, who made the green earth and the broad heaven. Heaven belongs to the radiant heavenly Lord; but the earth he gave to the race of mortals to hold. Not you, Blessed One, … of the dead who have perished, nor … to the nether … of death … now and hereafter for continual generations.

… of the eleventh decade … of God, because he inclined to me a divine and good hearing. The pangs of death that silence the voice held me; I found a shuddering pain and unwearying toil … our King is holy and merciful … why do you delay to come to your rest? Do you not see how God snatched you from hard-to-heal ruin? For indeed he rescued my heavy-minded soul from death; may I appear to the King, singing in the place of the living.

The fifth song upon the eleventh decade. Truly I spoke, trusting God the King. But I became the lowliest of mortals beyond others … I said that the race of mortals is lying. What shall I give to the Shepherd for the many things he has given me? The death of his holy ones is honoured before God. … I pray to be your servant; I am your servant, and the son of your handmaid, … in the holy courts, in the dear house of God, in your midst, much-famed Jerusalem.

… a song upon the eleventh decade … and all you peoples, shout to him together abundantly, because the Lord increases his merciful counsel toward us.

Of the eleventh decade … Sing to me the King, since this is good; let Israel say it, since this is good; let the house of Aaron say it, since this is good; you servants of the Lord, say it, since this is good. And leading [me] out of evil he widened my paths; the undefiled Lord is always the helper of my necessity; the undefiled Lord is always the helper of my necessity. But I will see the evil fate of my enemies. … to live trusting the immortal King, … in vain to hold a mind confident in mortal man, … to set a helpless hope. But I took them all, trusting the King. But I took them all, trusting the King. … like a torch among the thorns of the courts; but I took them all, trusting the King. And I would have fallen, thrust down, but the King came to me as champion. My praise and strength are in the immortal King, and an averting light appeared ready to me … he set my glorious head … I will never die, but there will be a season of life for me; and I will clearly cry out the royal works. The Immortal subdued me with dear chastisements, but he did not let me be subdued by evil death. Come now, open to me the faithful doors of righteousness; and, going in, I will sing a much-prayed hymn to the King. This is the gate of the King; let the road be the care of the good. … you, because you agreed with my voice, and appeared to me as a ready averting light. It appeared as the holy head of two walls; God built this honoured one with his hands, and … is before the eyes of mortals. That gladness and joy may appear to mortals … my road pleasing to the heart. Praised is he who will come lifting the name of the King … having come from the hall of the Blessed One. The famous Lord and good God has appeared to mortals. You are our God, and I will sing your praise; you are our God, and I lift you on high. … you, because you agreed with my voice, and appeared to me as a ready averting light. Sing to me the King, since this is good.

… of the decade, upon the eighth … Blessed are those who care for the path that is always undefiled, whose mind longed to walk according to the ordinance of God; … his testimonies in their hearts, seeking the good Lord with every kind of heart. For men who interpret hateful lawlessness … Would that all my paths might be directed very well, so that I may always be concerned with your justices; and I would escape in my mind heavy and reproachful blame. With upright heart, O King, I will sing your praise, when … the works of God-pleasing righteousness. [2] How would a young man direct his way, already fluttering, … with all kinds of thoughts, O King, … I set your sweet words, Blessed One, in my breast … You are praised, Blessed One; teach me your ordinances. With our lips I declared the ordinances of your mouth, as one who exults in his breast in broad wealth; nor will I forget your holy words thus. [3] In return for toils, Blessed One, … your servant a reward; I live, increasing in my heart the gain of immortal words. Scatter, Blessed One, the mist from my eyes, which formerly …, the famous wonders of your ordinances … I dwell on the earth for a short life; do not hide from me … for the sake of good commands. I longed in my mind for your justices all days. You will drive away, O Lord, blame and many reproaches far from me, because … your honoured testimonies. But I sang on … you heard me declaring the paths … set … in my heart. My heart slumbered, struck by evil ruin; but may you support my heart, O Lord, with your words … Lord, … the lawless … and … us with your oracles; I always found the path of truth pleasing to the heart; do not convict at all one who has trusted your testimonies. I ran the conspicuous path of your counsel, when you greatly widened my heart in my breast. [5] Teach me, Blessed One, the path of your laws; give me, O Lord, prudence, so that I may search out your law, and always keep it in our breast. … to your servant the word laden with fear … I spur on in my heart the desire for you … may I take your righteousness as fellow-worker of life, so that I may answer the insolent as is right. Do not hold back the truth of your mouth from me at all; for I have a longing for your lawful righteousness, and I will keep your radiant law in my heart, from generation to generation continually, all days. And how greatly did kings then marvel at my tongue? … of your servant, hoping in your word … has become a good comfort of my weakness, because your word has always been good life to me. And my mind always clung to your ordinances. Looking at your good ordinances … I often sang the song of your dear ordinances, though I was a sojourner in foreign lands. I kept the immortal ordinance in my dear breast … this, worthy of good justice … [8] You yourself were my portion; I said to you that I would keep your ordinances … With unceasing heart I besought … the King: Be gracious to me, O King, and I will do things worthy of your words. For I considered what was pleasing in your paths; from then I became most ready, being someone unshaken, … to have my heart cared for. But I hastened, rising in the middle of the night, to hymn in my heart the ordinances of your righteousness. Of all … you, Blessed One … the earth … of your good mercy … your glorious righteousness … us, and wisdom … Therefore I kept your words in my dear breast. You are gentle, Blessed One; teach me your justices. The boundless … of the overweening was stretched out against me; their breast was curdled like white milk; but your ordinance was always the care of my heart. How good … lowly … so that … your glorious righteousness. How good was the ordinance of the royal mouth, better for us than thousands of gold and silver. I was made and fashioned by your hands, Blessed One; give me prudence, so that I may learn your counsels, because I bound my cares to your words. I openly understood the ordinances of your righteousness, and in your truth I became lowly and feeble. … your mercy … a comfort to us, and a word in agreement for your servant, because the royal ordinance has become my meditation. Shame to the overweening, who have acted against the ordinance toward me; but I will sing of your commands. Let my heart be blameless in your commands … my mind was stretched out toward the divine light, and toward hearing the longed-for word of your good covenant, saying: When will you come to be my comfort? I became like a wineskin …, but I never forgot your righteousness in my heart. Say, how long is the time of the life of your servant? When will the wicked pay me a worthy penalty for their insolence? But they did not hold to your ordinance, a lying path. They pursued me unjustly; but may you be my helper, O Lord. And I remained trusting in your commands, and I will keep the testimonies of your mouth in my breast. Your word remains always in the starry heaven; the earth, Blessed One, remains rooted by your hands; early-born dawn bears your light at your command. If your ordinance had not been the care of my concern, … From then, since I found the gracious end of life. I am your servant, and may you ward off from me an evil fate. But I understood for the sake of your testimonies; I perceived with all kinds of thought the end of life; I recognized your counsel, O King, as broad. [13] How greatly I loved the royal ordinance, and, taking it in my breast, I will hymn it all day. … my enemies … and indeed it is my possession continually; … I hold the cares of the Lord’s heart. I found a counsel much greater than the prudence of elders, tracking the testimonies of the King in my heart, so that I may keep your dear word in my heart … I found your sweet law about the whiteness of words. I understood all things for the sake of your commands; therefore I hated every lawless path. Your ordinance, O Lord, is a lamp for my feet always, an immortal and ageless light for our footsteps. I swore, Undefiled One, to keep the decree of your justice. I became …, and by your words … and may you command things pleasing to our tongue, and … me your glorious righteousness. I always hold my heart in your hands. Evil-devising men fashioned a net for us; I took the testimonies of the King as a life-giving inheritance; I longed in my heart to accomplish your justices, Blessed One, so that you may warm my heart with good in return. [15] I loved your ordinance, but hated the lawless; you are my defence and the protector of my strength; I always had a glorious hope in your words, so that I may track … of God the King … Nor put me to shame, who wait for your strength. Because the heart of the impious is set on …, therefore I loved … for your sake. Nail my body with your fear as with nails. I accomplished good order and lovely righteousness … your good servant. My eyes longed for your averting light … To your servant, Blessed One, … things worthy of mercy. I am your servant; may you give me wisdom; therefore I longed for the great glory of your commands … force, and unjust paths. The testimonies of the King are always very wondrous; may the grace of your words grant us strength and light, always setting wisdom in the hearts of infants. I received in my breast the highest spirit as a rule, because I always longed for the glory of your commands. May you direct my running steps with your words, and I will keep your good commands in my breast. And … me your glorious righteousness … tearful paths … and unshaken strength … because the evil-minded forgot your commands. Your word has been like fire burning, but may your servant love it in his heart. But I always sing your righteousness in my heart; your righteousness is ageless all days, and your truth … Hateful toil and helpless necessities held me; you bear testimonies pregnant with holy works; give me prudence, O Lord, and life will be sufficient for me, and I will keep your good testimonies in my breast … of the King … with words; my eyes looked forward quickly to the season, from dawn, so that I may cry out the good meditations of your words. Hear our voice with a merciful heart; direct my path under your justices. … fled your honoured and glorious ordinance. You are near, O Lord, and your paths are all true, since I keep your ordinance remembered in my heart. Let your word be the cause of our life … your averting light … for they forgot to inquire into your justices. Direct my path under your justices. Seeing the servants of folly, I melt my heart, whose mind refused to keep your word, O Lord. Consider how I am concerned with your commands. You set truth as the mother of your words, and always commanded them the ordinance for justice. I trembled in my heart only at the fears of your words … I will rejoice in my dear heart at your words, as one who carries off much plunder from enemies. Seven times a day I praised your glory, O Lord …; nor do they have any strife among themselves when they set out. I hoped for your light, and … I kept your testimonies, and loved them in my heart … I kept, and the joints … [22] Let my supplication … the King … may you send us prudence worthy of your words. May the grace of our prayers come before you, Blessed One; may your word always stand by me as a defender from evil, when you teach me your glorious righteousness. Let my tongue utter your dear life-giving word, because you mixed righteousness into your commands … I longed from the heart for your averting light; let my soul live, and it will sing your famous praise; and may I always be concerned with your justices … I wandered like one who has perished … your servant …

This eleventh decade, upon the ninth, an immortal song. From unjust lips, Immortal One, rescue my soul; what would anyone give you, or add, O Lord, with a deceitful tongue? … Woe is me! since I have dwelt so long on earth, … fixing a dwelling together … I pursued peace among all lovers of war … when I spoke in vain …

This is the twelfth decade … Let my strength be with the strong King, who made the green earth and the broad heaven. … your foot … and let not sleep hold the mind of your sleepless guardian; for sweet sleep will not seize him nodding … God will shelter your hand, guarding … the strength of the sun will not burn you all day, as he cares for your soul, so that it may never find pain … now and hereafter for continual generations.

This is the twelfth decade, returning to one song. When I heard men, greatly, greatly was my heart warmed, men who said that I would come as a fellow-traveller to the house of God; and those who are outside near it gathered about it, for twelve tribes were urged to go there, so that they might hymn the undefiled divine name. There wise thrones were fixed for justice, the thrones in the halls of mighty David. Boundless happiness awaits those who love you, Blessed One. For the sake of my brothers and companions, Immortal One, I spoke peace for the sake of your counsel; and there they longed for all the blessed things of your house.

This is the twelfth decade, and it brings also a second hymn. I lifted my eyes to the heavenly King. As when the light of servants is in the hands of masters, as when the light of a handmaid is in the hands of her mistress, … Blessed One, … eye … your … The heart in each one’s breast is laden with evils; but to the overweening all reproaches …

This twelfth decade, bringing the third hymn. … let [Israel] say … great … men in battle, and the deep water would quickly have swept us away … our soul has passed over the unstable water. Praised is he who did not give us as prey to their teeth. Our strength is with the immortal King, who made the green earth and the broad heaven.

This is the twelfth decade, and it brings also a fourth hymn. Those who trust in the Immortal are like … of Zion. May no dreadful turmoil reach the inhabitant of Jerusalem. Mountains are around it, and the King around his people, now and hereafter for continual generations. For the Lord will never … of the wicked … to be numbered with the lot of the conspicuous holy; do good to the good and to the upright in heart.

This is the twelfth decade, and the fifth song with it. When the Lord gathers back the captives of Zion, … comfort for griefs was … Ah, how much joy may we bring, filled in our mouth …, a tongue pregnant with … And someone of the foreigners will say, hearing even from afar: These have been boastful works of God the King. May we be in gladness and splendour, as the dreadful torrent is turned by the breath of the south wind. Those who sow in tears will reap rejoicing … bringing out their seed …

This is the twelfth decade, and it has a sixth song … guards the admired, conspicuous city … from dawn, empty is the watch of each one. Rise: why do you sit thus among them …, when sweet sleep comes to his dear ones? See the inheritance of the King, and sons, the dear and glorious reward of the fruitful belly. As darts are in the hands of a strong man, … Blessed is he who will fulfil his dear longing …; nor will a lie take them, speaking with enemies before the gates.

Blessed are those for whom the fear of God is a care, whose feet are always ready on the road of the King. All will be well with you, and you will hear yourself called most blessed of mortals. Sons, too, like young olive shoots … So may all who tremble at the Lord be blessed … may you have royal praise … all the days of unwearied life … you will see grandsons around your dear children … gracious peace among …

Often from my youth they have raised a shameless outcry against me; often from my youth they have raised a shameless outcry against me; nor … against me, hastening before. The impious fashioned evil cares on my back; but the holy Lord broke the neck of the sinners. May shame always cover those who hate Zion; may they become dry like grass on the housetops, from which the binder of sheaves went away carrying an empty hand; nor did he fill his bosom, gathering the year’s sheaves; nor did any of those passing by praise the men for their work.

This twelfth decade is seen about the ninth hymn. … hear, and receive my voice. For if you keep the lawlessness of mortals in your breast, what mortal will be able [to stand] against the heart of the Immortal? For the sake of your wisdom I have endured royal virtue, and to set my hope, longed for in my heart, on you, Blessed One. From the morning watch to the paths of night, … from the watch let God be the care …, because the Lord has mercy and the day of freedom, rescuing … from all evil …

This is the hymn of the thirteenth decade. Never did I have a heart that fluttered among great things, nor … among greater wonders … I lifted up my voice thus unspeakably, as an infant in need of milk wails about its mother; so will my heart go to its reward … now and hereafter for continual generations.

A sweet and clear song … Remember David, and all his gentleness. He swore to the Immortal, and prayed such things to the King: If ever I go into my honoured house, if I mount the bed of the most beautiful couches, if ever I receive gentle sleep into my eyes, … an honoured place for the King, so that I may find an immortal temple for the God of Jacob. This, as we heard, was always the report in Ephrathah; we found it, I know, a report in the thickets among the glades. And you yourself raise up with you the undefiled ark … may [your priests] clothe themselves, Blessed One, with your righteousness … For the sake of David, your mighty servant, never … of your Christ. The King swore to David to do what is all true; he swore and nodded, and will not falsify his oaths: … the shoot of your belly … If the race keeps this covenant of mine, and the good testimonies which I myself will set in their hearts, … because God chose divine Zion beforehand, how he longs for it as a desired and lovely house: This is my rest for unceasing generations; here I would dwell, fettered by good longing. I would fill the houses of widows in need with good things, and give the poor again a satisfying feast of life. Here … an immortal horn for David; I have granted my Christ a ready lamp as leader. I will kindle shame and blame upon his enemies; but upon him let our purity spring up.

… a hymn after the second. What is fair for mortals, and what pleasant, for brothers to dwell together in dear houses? … from the head down to the beard … where the Shepherd commanded all his blessing, … to be continually of life.

The third hymn of the thirteenth decade. All you servants of the Lord, sing the Shepherd of the world, standing in the house of the mighty King; all night in the houses of the Holy One lift up your hands. May the King give you ready praise from Zion, he who made the green earth and the broad heaven.

Always glorious, it goes about the fourth hymn. Sing the honoured Shepherd, wise children, … in the house of the mighty King, who frequent the well-fenced courts of the houses of God. Sing to me the King, since God is good; play the lyre to his name, since this is fair to sing. And he set famous Israel as his possession. I know in my dear heart how great the Shepherd has been; our King surpasses the other blessed ones, doing whatever … in his heart, in the starry heaven and on the much-nourishing earth … clouds from the last end of the earth on high; he set lightnings as signs, rain in the sky … together with the herds of four-footed beasts, … of mortals, making countless wonders in the middle of the Egyptian land; Pharaoh suffered these, and his servants did not escape … the lord of mighty Bashan … and, taking their land, he divided it by lot to his own, an inheritance for his servant Israel as was due …, holding comfort for grief among his dear servants. The idols of the peoples were gold and silver, … the elaborate works of wise hands, which have no voice, even if they have a mouth, nor do they bear light about …; they have only ears, and do not hear a cry, nor does the holy smell of the air come into their nostrils; they have no strength to grope, even if … hands, nor to set a footstep with feet on the fertile earth; for they have no breath to send forth through the mouth. And all are confident in mind in such things. Sing to me the King, house of wise Israel; famous house of Levi, sing the Shepherd of the world; you in whose hearts the fear of God is a care, shout to the Lord … dwelling in the God-pleasing houses about Jerusalem.

It brings a sweet and clear fifth song. … to me the King, the mighty King of kings, who fashioned the starry heaven with wise counsel, set firm upon the waters the earth that was not before, the stars and the moon, queen of the paths of night; who subdued together the race of the firstborn of Egypt, and, taking [Israel] from their midst, led them out with a very bold hand, trusting in his arm in all things, … breaking the Red Sea …, led them through its middle as they walked; who slew Pharaoh and his might in the Red Sea, and led [them] through the trackless land; … godlike Sihon, king of the Amorites … and, taking their land, he divided it by lot to his own, … for his servant as was due; who alone gives feasting to all that he created. Sing to me the great King of the starry pole.

A song of laments about Jeremiah, which … For in the middle of the rivers, over the fruit-destroying willow … How is it possible to sing a divine song in a foreign land? May my dear right hand forget itself; may my tongue, stuck to my throat, wither, if I am not always mindful of you in my heart, as of Jerusalem and gladness … And you, Blessed One, never forget the children of Edom … nor spare her any longer, while she still holds her foundations. He who, coming under the rock, will dash your infants …

This is of Zechariah and Haggai; it is the seventh upon the thirteenth decade. With unceasing heart, O King, I will sing your praise, because you have heard all kinds of words from me. … your undefiled temple … with zeal the undefiled name of the King of all … and your mercy and always true counsel, since your name, ruling over all, prevails over all things. Hear me when I call, when there is need to pray. May the kings of the whole earth sing the Immortal, because they heard all kinds of words from you with their ears; because glory always covers the earth with clouds. The Lord is always most high, but looks at the lowliest; he knows the highest, and sees from afar. You will keep me alive when I am subdued in the middle of destructive ruin; angered, you armed your hands against my enemies, … and … released me from the toils of evils. Nor overlook, O King, the works of your hand.

… upon the thirtieth. … nor do I escape your notice, sitting or rising. You understood my intentions afar off within my breast, tracking my footstep and my straight path; nor was any of my paths forgotten by your eyes. Wonder holds me when I consider your counsel in my heart, nor can I see very strongly with my mind. Then I would not be able to escape the great strength of your spirit. If I should go to heaven, this is your throne; there … of your hand, and of your right hand, so that my life may be firm. And I said: Perhaps mortal-destroying darkness will tread on me; but delight was kindled into the night, and darkness drove out the light. For your light has known how to cover darkness; no one would know what darkness or light was. Because, O King, you acquired our kidneys …, you are my defence, Blessed One, in my dear mother’s womb. … my King … my heart knew your works, Blessed One, to be very wonderful. You know from me the bones which you formed in secret, and the strength of my life is in the nether foundations. You saw me, O Lord, still unformed in my mother’s womb, fashioning all together in your undefiled book. But to me above all your friends are admired; and the force of their rulers appears greater. I would number them far more than the sand … always with you … I command my strength quickly … that they will sack my cities. My heart melted at those enemies, and they were enemies and hostile to me in heart. But search my mind clearly …

This too is a clear song of David’s singing. … Blessed One, from evil … lawless things in their heart; … their tongue like evil snakes, taking the venom of a murderous asp about their lips. Would that I might be guarded from the hateful hand of sinners; … me easily, Most Blessed, from unjust men, … who [planned] in their hearts to confound my footsteps. The overweening men secretly fixed nets for me … nets about my foot. I said to God the King: God, you have become my hope; hear my …, highest Shepherd. You are immortal, Blessed One, and have become the light of my life; … my head, shady … around their head … and the toil of their destructive lips covers them. May coals of tireless fire fall among them; from on high may you cast them down to the earth with a rushing torch, nor will they ever hold out, subdued in heart by evils. May an evil-devising season cast down the babbling man; and … will never pass over the justice of the needy with his eyes.

Of David, of the tenth and another decade … O Lord, hear me as I cry …, when, Blessed One, I call upon your helping hand; may you direct my prayer before you like incense. Set a guard and fence about our teeth; may you turn my heart away from … words … nor may a pretext for transgression be the care of my counsels, nor … with their first ones in … May I be subdued by the mercy and rebukes of the holy; may I no longer … my head with the oil of a destructive man. Still our prayer is about their … like a crest cut off from the root, may it roll; their bones were thus scattered near Hades. To you, Blessed One, my longing … may you destroy the fellow-workers of evil of the Immortal …

… the hundred and forty-[first] … I sent up a cry to the King, crying out; and I would declare to him my painful toil … I looked at my right hand …, and none of my friends thought to see us at all. My flight perished before me as I longed to flee, nor was there any who would track my heart as I fled. But I, crying, said: You have become my hope, my portion of life, Blessed One, in the land of the living …, because they are far stronger than me in force. Would that you would take my heart out of helpless prison, so that I may clearly sing your name. The generations of the righteous await my reward from you.

A famous hymn of David, … Absalom … blameless; yet it is the hundred and forty-[second]. In your righteousness, O Lord, hear me crying … for no one of mortals would appear holy before you. The enemy forced my groaning soul, driving it; he subjected my … to the nether places of the earth, seating me like the helpless dead under darkness … my heart in my mind … But I, remembering the season of former generations, … my hands to the King; my soul longs for you like the furrows of thirsty earth … before the breath of my limbs … Would that I might learn from dawn of your mercy, Blessed One; give me now a propitious path, where there is need to walk, … my heart always to you, since, fearing, I always found you an unbreakable tower. You yourself are my Lord, and may you teach me your mind; may the good Spirit of God bear me to a straight land. Give me justice, the nourisher of life, for your sake; … my groaning soul, O Lord, … and … my opponents in your mercy, because I pray to be your servant, pleasing to your heart.

And the third, following the former ones in wisdom; yet it is the hundred and forty-[third]. Let God always be praised with well-sounding songs; always, O Lord, you have become my mercy and tower, subduing my people under our hands. What is a mortal, O Lord, that you have stood openly by him? … he has become like images … touch the mountains, and you will make abundant dark smoke. Send, Blessed One, with your arrows, so that you may stir them up. May you send your hand from the sky, so that … me; rescue me, Most Blessed, from the hand of foreign sons. But I will sing a new song to you, Most High; on the harmony of the ten-string I will sing your glory, you who grant the light of life to our kings, and freed your servant David from the sword. But for their daughters there is such adornment of beauty that you would say with your eyes that you see a temple with golden headbands. From one [storehouse] to another unspeakable water flows around. For them well-grazed sheep and many blessed things have been made …, and well-fed oxen, far better than others. All things are firm for them, far from the wounds of ruin, nor is there any outcry in their broad roads. Blessed is the people for whom God is a care in heart.

Yet it is the hundred and forty-[fourth]. … continually, all days. Rejoicing, I will sing you continually day upon day, from generation to generation continually, all days. You are praised, Blessed One, and great glory has been lifted up for you. Races will cry your works to races, Most Blessed, and recount your conspicuous, magnificent glory, and with fear they will sing on their mouth your work beyond compare. Let none of your boastful works pass by unsung; your unshakable strength … The King most high is compassionate and merciful, having an enduring heart and increasing his mercy. God has known how to keep gentleness among all, pitying all the works which he fashioned with his hand. With unceasing heart, Most Blessed, the works will cry to you, and the race of the holy will sing your glorious praise. And they will hymn, O Lord, your unshakable strength, how you will hold immortal strength wonderful to mortals, and magnificent glory … God weaves faith with undefiled words, and righteousness has been mixed into his works. The Immortal has always known how to raise those who fall, to set upright the man fallen under a destructive fracture …, and may you give to all together suitable food, as is due; you will fill every race when you open your hand. Righteousness attends the paths of the King on every side; it stands around everyone who prays, and guards … My faithful mouth will sing the praise of the King of all, and the unspeakable races of mortals will sing the famous name of God.

This hymn is common to Zechariah and Haggai; yet it is the hundred and forty-[fifth]. Sing God, dear heart, the ruler of your life …; may you be confident in your heart … nor in the children of mortals, from whom light never came; whose soul flies away, and he goes back again to his earth … they waste away together … with the dead. Blessed is he for whom the most high God is helper, who made the green earth and the broad heaven, the loud-roaring sea and all that the swell of the sea nourishes. He himself knows how to save the one fettered in unbreakable fetters; he himself raises men from under the shuddering fracture; the Lord himself makes a wise mind for the blind; the King of all himself … the holy race; the Lord himself has known how to guard the newly arrived stranger.

… this hymn is of … and Haggai. Sing the King of all, since the song is good. Praise will be pleasing to our … those whose dear heart has been broken, … naming all the stars. Our God is great … beginning … the King with quick … who makes grass grow even on the high-haired mountains, who also gave fitting food to the herds of four-footed beasts. The Lord will never praise the unrestrained strength of the horse; rather … in his servants, … those for whom the mercy of the Lord is pleasing to the heart.

… Alleluia … yet it is the hundred and forty-[seventh] … He has praised in you your wise and glorious children; he who set your borders guarded in peace. And he, running swiftly, will go here and there …, showing on high the strength of cold snow, sprinkling the drought of mist like smoke-born ash. Who can match his strength? … all things will melt at the living word … Never did he do such a thing among foreign nations, nor did he show his justices to the peoples.

This hymn is common to Zechariah and Haggai, having the eighth …; yet it is the hundred and forty-[eighth]. Sing to me the great glory of the King from heaven … Sing, sun and radiant moon; sing God, all stars and unspeakable radiance; sing above the heavenly floors, above another heaven, and the holy water above the heavenly circles; because he himself spoke, and all things sprang up … and continually what he himself did. Fire with ice, and snow follow together with hail, and the breath of the dark storm … cedars of every kind, and flourishing trees, herds of four-footed beasts and mountain beasts of the earth … younger, coming together, because only the royal name has been exalted. His praise covers earth and heaven, and the horn of his people …

Sweet is the song, the hundred and forty-ninth. Sing to me a new and lovely song for the King; he always has the hymn of the holy as a care in their tents. Let them sing the royal name with …; let them sing to him, taking up drum and lyre, because his people has been pleasing to his heart. … may he lift up his dear race with light …, to destroy the evildoing men of all kinds of peoples; and he will rebuke the peoples who have let go the immortal yoke … and he will accomplish with zeal the written good order among them. Thus good glory has come to be for all his holy ones.

The song of the fifteenth decade … Sing to me the King, and let choirs of the righteous follow together; … him with lyre and harmony …; sing him, taking in your hands cymbals of shouting.

It is from outside [the number] of the fifteenth decade … Among my brothers I [was] very …, hearing, as a youth among all, in my father’s house. My hands … a lyre … The Lord himself knew how to hear my words; he himself sent a swift messenger of the heavenly army, … took me from the flock of sheep, and he himself anointed my body with rich oil. I had brothers, great and good; but the King did not wish to grant them good glory. And he, trusting in his idols, reviled me; and I, drawing the sharp sword from beside his thigh, standing beside him, cut off his head from his lofty neck. I bring divine praise to you, Highest among kings … of wise and most beautiful David …