Dual Panel1SAVE ME, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck [they threaten my life].
2I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overwhelm me.
3I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; my eyes fail with waiting [hopefully] for my God.
4Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head; those who would cut me off {and} destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are many {and} mighty. I am [forced] to restore what I did not steal.
5O God, You know my folly {and} blundering; my sins {and} my guilt are not hidden from You.
6Let not those who wait {and} hope {and} look for You, O Lord of hosts, be put to shame through me; let not those who seek {and} inquire for {and} require You [as their vital necessity] be brought to confusion {and} dishonor through me, O God of Israel.
7Because for Your sake I have borne taunt {and} reproach; confusion {and} shame have covered my face.
8I have become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to my mother's children.
9For zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches {and} insults of those who reproach {and} insult You have fallen upon me.
10When I wept {and} humbled myself with fasting, I was jeered at {and} humiliated;
11When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword (an object of scorn) to them.
12They who sit in [the city's] gate talk about me, and I am the song of the drunkards.
13But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord. At an acceptable {and} opportune time, O God, in the multitude of Your mercy {and} the abundance of Your loving-kindness hear me, {and} in the truth {and} faithfulness of Your salvation answer me.
14Rescue me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from those who hate me and from out of the deep waters.
15Let not the floodwaters overflow {and} overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up nor the [dug] pit [with water perhaps in the bottom] close its mouth over me.
16Hear {and} answer me, O Lord, for Your loving-kindness is sweet {and} comforting; according to Your plenteous tender mercy {and} steadfast love turn to me.
17Hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress; O answer me speedily!
18Draw close to me and redeem me; ransom {and} set me free because of my enemies [lest they glory in my prolonged distress]!
19You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor; my adversaries are all before You [fully known to You].
20Insults {and} reproach have broken my heart; I am full of heaviness {and} I am distressingly sick. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.
21They gave me also gall [poisonous and bitter] for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar (a soured wine) to drink.
22Let their own table [with all its abundance and luxury] become a snare to them; and when they are secure in peace [or at their sacrificial feasts, let it become] a trap to them.
23Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually [from terror, dismay, and feebleness].
24Pour out Your indignation upon them, and let the fierceness of Your burning anger catch up with them.
25Let their habitation {and} their encampment be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents.
26For they pursue {and} persecute him whom You have smitten, and they gossip about those whom You have wounded, [adding] to their grief {and} pain.
27Let one [unforgiven] perverseness {and} iniquity accumulate upon another for them [in Your book], and let them not come into Your righteousness {or} be justified and acquitted by You.
28Let them be blotted out of the book of the living {and} the book of life and not be enrolled among the [uncompromisingly] righteous (those upright and in right standing with God).
29But I am poor, sorrowful, and in pain; let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify Him with thanksgiving,
31And it will please the Lord better than an ox or a bullock that has horns and hoofs.
32The humble shall see it and be glad; you who seek God, inquiring for {and} requiring Him [as your first need], let your hearts revive {and} live!
33For the Lord hears the poor {and} needy and despises not His prisoners (His miserable and wounded ones).
34Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.
35For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah; and [His servants] shall remain {and} dwell there and have it in their possession;
36The children of His servants shall inherit it, and those who love His name shall dwell in it.