88 A Song, a Psalm, by sons of Korah, to the Overseer, `Concerning the Sickness of Afflictions.' -- An instruction, by Heman the Ezrahite. O Jehovah, God of my salvation, Daily I have cried, nightly before Thee,

² My prayer cometh in before Thee, Incline Thine ear to my loud cry,

³ For my soul hath been full of evils, And my life hath come to Sheol.

⁴ I have been reckoned with those going down [to] the pit, I have been as a man without strength.

⁵ Among the dead -- free, As pierced ones lying in the grave, Whom Thou hast not remembered any more, Yea, they by Thy hand have been cut off.

⁶ Thou hast put me in the lowest pit, In dark places, in depths.

⁷ Upon me hath Thy fury lain, And [with] all Thy breakers Thou hast afflicted. Selah.

⁸ Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me, Thou hast made me an abomination to them, Shut up -- I go not forth.

⁹ Mine eye hath grieved because of affliction, I called Thee, O Jehovah, all the day, I have spread out unto Thee my hands.

¹⁰ To the dead dost Thou do wonders? Do Rephaim rise? do they thank Thee? Selah.

¹¹ Is Thy kindness recounted in the grave? Thy faithfulness in destruction?

¹² Are Thy wonders known in the darkness? And Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³ And I, unto Thee, O Jehovah, I have cried, And in the morning doth my prayer come before Thee.

¹⁴ Why, O Jehovah, castest Thou off my soul? Thou hidest Thy face from me.

¹⁵ I [am] afflicted, and expiring from youth, I have borne Thy terrors -- I pine away.

¹⁶ Over me hath Thy wrath passed, Thy terrors have cut me off,

¹⁷ They have surrounded me as waters all the day, They have gone round against me together,

¹⁸ Thou hast put far from me lover and friend, Mine acquaintance [is] the place of darkness!

89 An instruction, by Ethan the Ezrahite. Of the kind acts of Jehovah, to the age I sing, To all generations I make known Thy faithfulness with my mouth,

² For I said, `To the age is kindness built, The heavens! Thou dost establish Thy faithfulness in them.'

³ I have made a covenant for My chosen, I have sworn to David My servant:

⁴ `Even to the age do I establish thy seed, And have built to generation and generation thy throne. Selah.

⁵ and the heavens confess Thy wonders, O Jehovah, Thy faithfulness also [is] in an assembly of holy ones.

⁶ For who in the sky, Compareth himself to Jehovah? Is like to Jehovah among sons of the mighty?

⁷ God is very terrible, In the secret counsel of His holy ones, And fearful over all surrounding Him.

⁸ O Jehovah, God of Hosts, Who [is] like Thee -- a strong Jah? And Thy faithfulness [is] round about Thee.

⁹ Thou [art] ruler over the pride of the sea, In the lifting up of its billows Thou dost restrain them.

¹⁰ Thou hast bruised Rahab, as one wounded. With the arm of Thy strength Thou hast scattered Thine enemies.

¹¹ Thine [are] the heavens -- the earth also [is] Thine, The habitable world and its fulness, Thou hast founded them.

¹² North and south Thou hast appointed them, Tabor and Hermon in Thy name do sing.

¹³ Thou hast an arm with might, Strong is Thy hand -- high Thy right hand.

¹⁴ Righteousness and judgment [Are] the fixed place of Thy throne, Kindness and truth go before Thy face.

¹⁵ O the happiness of the people knowing the shout, O Jehovah, in the light of Thy face they walk habitually.

¹⁶ In Thy name they rejoice all the day, And in Thy righteousness they are exalted,

¹⁷ For the beauty of their strength [art] Thou, And in Thy good will is our horn exalted,

¹⁸ For of Jehovah [is] our shield, And of the Holy One of Israel our king.

¹⁹ Then Thou hast spoken in vision, To Thy saint, yea, Thou sayest, I have placed help upon a mighty one, Exalted a chosen one out of the people,

²⁰ I have found David My servant, With My holy oil I have anointed him.

²¹ With whom My hand is established, My arm also doth strengthen him.

²² An enemy exacteth not upon him, And a son of perverseness afflicteth him not.

²³ And I have beaten down before him his adversaries, And those hating him I plague,

²⁴ And My faithfulness and kindness [are] with him, And in My name is his horn exalted.

²⁵ And I have set on the sea his hand, And on the rivers his right hand.

²⁶ He proclaimeth me: `Thou [art] my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.'

²⁷ I also first-born do appoint him, Highest of the kings of the earth.

²⁸ To the age I keep for him My kindness, And My covenant [is] stedfast with him.

²⁹ And I have set his seed for ever, And his throne as the days of the heavens.

³⁰ If his sons forsake My law, And in My judgments do not walk;

³¹ If My statutes they pollute, And My commands do not keep,

³² I have looked after with a rod their transgression, And with strokes their iniquity,

³³ And My kindness I break not from him, Nor do I deal falsely in My faithfulness.

³⁴ I profane not My covenant, And that which is going forth from My lips I change not.

³⁵ Once I have sworn by My holiness, I lie not to David,

³⁶ His seed is to the age, And his throne [is] as the sun before Me,

³⁷ As the moon it is established -- to the age, And the witness in the sky is stedfast. Selah.

³⁸ And Thou, Thou hast cast off, and dost reject, Thou hast shown Thyself wroth With Thine anointed,

³⁹ Hast rejected the covenant of Thy servant, Thou hast polluted to the earth his crown,

⁴⁰ Thou hast broken down all his hedges, Thou hast made his fenced places a ruin.

⁴¹ Spoiled him have all passing by the way, He hath been a reproach to his neighbours,

⁴² Thou hast exalted the right hand of his adversaries, Thou hast caused all his enemies to rejoice.

⁴³ Also -- Thou turnest back the sharpness of his sword, And hast not established him in battle,

⁴⁴ Hast caused [him] to cease from his brightness, And his throne to the earth hast cast down.

⁴⁵ Thou hast shortened the days of his youth, Hast covered him over [with] shame. Selah.

⁴⁶ Till when, O Jehovah, art Thou hidden? For ever doth Thy fury burn as fire?

⁴⁷ Remember, I pray Thee, what [is] life-time? Wherefore in vain hast Thou created All the sons of men?

⁴⁸ Who [is] the man that liveth, and doth not see death? He delivereth his soul from the hand of Sheol. Selah.

⁴⁹ Where [are] Thy former kindnesses, O Lord. Thou hast sworn to David in Thy faithfulness,

⁵⁰ Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, I have borne in my bosom all the strivings of the peoples,

⁵¹ Wherewith Thine enemies reproached, O Jehovah, Wherewith they have reproached The steps of Thine anointed.

⁵² Blessed [is] Jehovah to the age. Amen, and amen!

90 A Prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, a habitation Thou -- Thou hast been, To us -- in generation and generation,

² Before mountains were brought forth, And Thou dost form the earth and the world, Even from age unto age Thou [art] God.

³ Thou turnest man unto a bruised thing, And sayest, Turn back, ye sons of men.

⁴ For a thousand years in Thine eyes [are] as yesterday, For it passeth on, yea, a watch by night.

⁵ Thou hast inundated them, they are asleep, In the morning as grass he changeth.

⁶ In the morning it flourisheth, and hath changed, At evening it is cut down, and hath withered.

⁷ For we were consumed in Thine anger, And in Thy fury we have been troubled.

⁸ Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, Our hidden things at the light of Thy face,

⁹ For all our days pined away in Thy wrath, We consumed our years as a meditation.

¹⁰ Days of our years, in them [are] seventy years, And if, by reason of might, eighty years, Yet [is] their enlargement labour and vanity, For it hath been cut off hastily, and we fly away.

¹¹ Who knoweth the power of Thine anger? And according to Thy fear -- Thy wrath?

¹² To number our days aright let [us] know, And we bring the heart to wisdom.

¹³ Turn back, O Jehovah, till when? And repent concerning Thy servants.

¹⁴ Satisfy us at morn [with] Thy kindness, And we sing and rejoice all our days.

¹⁵ Cause us to rejoice according to the days Wherein Thou hast afflicted us, The years we have seen evil.

¹⁶ Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, And Thine honour on their sons.

¹⁷ And let the pleasantness of Jehovah our God be upon us, And the work of our hands establish on us, Yea, the work of our hands establish it!

91 He who is dwelling In the secret place of the Most High, In the shade of the Mighty lodgeth habitually,

² He is saying of Jehovah, `My refuge, and my bulwark, my God, I trust in Him,'

³ For He delivereth thee from the snare of a fowler, From a calamitous pestilence.

⁴ With His pinion He covereth thee over, And under His wings thou dost trust, A shield and buckler [is] His truth.

⁵ Thou art not afraid of fear by night, Of arrow that flieth by day,

⁶ Of pestilence in thick darkness that walketh, Of destruction that destroyeth at noon,

⁷ There fall at thy side a thousand, And a myriad at thy right hand, Unto thee it cometh not nigh.

⁸ But with thine eyes thou lookest, And the reward of the wicked thou seest,

⁹ (For Thou, O Jehovah, [art] my refuge,) The Most High thou madest thy habitation.

¹⁰ Evil happeneth not unto thee, And a plague cometh not near thy tent,

¹¹ For His messengers He chargeth for thee, To keep thee in all thy ways,

¹² On the hands they bear thee up, Lest thou smite against a stone thy foot.

¹³ On lion and asp thou treadest, Thou trampest young lion and dragon.

¹⁴ Because in Me he hath delighted, I also deliver him -- I set him on high, Because he hath known My name.

¹⁵ He doth call Me, and I answer him, I [am] with him in distress, I deliver him, and honour him.

¹⁶ With length of days I satisfy him, And I cause him to look on My salvation!

92 A Psalm. -- A Song for the sabbath-day. Good to give thanks to Jehovah, And to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High,

² To declare in the morning Thy kindness, And Thy faithfulness in the nights.

³ On ten strings and on psaltery, On higgaion, with harp.

⁴ For Thou hast caused me to rejoice, O Jehovah, in Thy work, Concerning the works of Thy hands I sing.

⁵ How great have been Thy works, O Jehovah, Very deep have been Thy thoughts.

⁶ A brutish man doth not know, And a fool understandeth not this; --

⁷ When the wicked flourish as a herb, And blossom do all workers of iniquity -- For their being destroyed for ever and ever!

⁸ And Thou [art] high to the age, O Jehovah.

⁹ For, lo, Thine enemies, O Jehovah, For, lo, Thine enemies, do perish, Separate themselves do all workers of iniquity.

¹⁰ And Thou exaltest as a reem my horn, I have been anointed with fresh oil.

¹¹ And mine eye looketh on mine enemies, Of those rising up against me, The evil doers, do mine ears hear.

¹² The righteous as a palm-tree flourisheth, As a cedar in Lebanon he groweth.

¹³ Those planted in the house of Jehovah, In the courts of our God do flourish.

¹⁴ Still they bring forth in old age, Fat and flourishing are they,

¹⁵ To declare that upright [is] Jehovah my rock, And there is no perverseness in Him!