⁹ But now you’ve rejected and humiliated us.
    You no longer accompany our armies.
¹⁰ You make us retreat from the enemy;
    our adversaries plunder us.
¹¹ You’ve handed us over like sheep for butchering;
    you’ve scattered us among the nations.
¹² You’ve sold your people for nothing,
    not even bothering to set a decent price.
¹³ You’ve made us a joke to all our neighbors;
    we’re mocked and ridiculed by everyone around us.
¹⁴ You’ve made us a bad joke to the nations,
    something to be laughed at by all peoples.
¹⁵ All day long my disgrace confronts me,
    and shame covers my face
¹⁶     because of the voices of those
    who make fun of me and bad-mouth me,
        because of the enemy who is out for revenge.

¹⁷ All this has come upon us,
    but we haven’t forgotten you
    or broken your covenant.
¹⁸ Our hearts haven’t turned away,
    neither have our steps strayed from your way.
¹⁹ But you’ve crushed us in the place where jackals live,
    covering us with deepest darkness.
²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God
    or spread out our hands to some strange deity,
²¹ wouldn’t God have discovered it?
    After all, God knows every secret of the heart.
²² No, God, it’s because of you that we are getting killed every day—
    it’s because of you that we are considered sheep ready for slaughter.

²³ Wake up! Why are you sleeping, Lord?
    Get up! Don’t reject us forever!
²⁴ Why are you hiding your face,
    forgetting our suffering and oppression?
²⁵ Look: we’re going down to the dust;
    our stomachs are flat on the ground!
²⁶ Stand up! Help us!
    Save us for the sake of your faithful love.

⁶ God has spoken in his sanctuary:
    “I will celebrate as I divide up Shechem
        and portion out the Succoth Valley.
⁷     Gilead is mine;
    Manasseh is mine;
    Ephraim is my helmet;
    Judah is my scepter.
⁸     But Moab is my washbowl;
    I’ll throw my shoe at Edom.
    I shout in triumph over Philistia!
⁹     I wish someone would bring me to a fortified city!
    I wish someone would lead me to Edom!”

¹⁰ But you have rejected us, God, haven’t you?
    God, you no longer accompany our armies.
¹¹ Give us help against the enemy;
    human help is worthless.
¹² With God we will triumph;
    he’s the one who will trample our adversaries.

⁴ Your enemies roared in your own meeting place;
    they set up their own signs there!
⁵ It looked like axes raised
    against a thicket of trees.
⁶ And then all its carvings
    they hacked down with hatchet and pick.
⁷ They set fire to your sanctuary, burned it to the ground;
    they defiled the dwelling place of your name.
⁸ They said in their hearts, We’ll kill all of them together!
    They burned all of God’s meeting places in the land.
⁹ We don’t see our own signs anymore.
    No prophet is left.
        And none of us know how long it will last.

¹⁰ How long, God, will foes insult you?
    Are enemies going to abuse your name forever?
¹¹ Why do you pull your hand back?
    Why do you hold your strong hand close to your chest?

¹² Yet God has been my king from ancient days—
    God, who makes salvation happen in the heart of the earth!
¹³         You split the sea with your power.
        You shattered the heads of the sea monsters on the water.
¹⁴         You crushed Leviathan’s heads.
        You gave it to the desert dwellers for food!
¹⁵         You split open springs and streams;
        you made strong-flowing rivers dry right up.
¹⁶         The day belongs to you! The night too!
        You established both the moon and the sun.
¹⁷         You set all the boundaries of the earth in place.
        Summer and winter? You made them!

¹⁸ So remember this, Lord:
    how enemies have insulted you,
    how unbelieving fools have abused your name.
¹⁹ Don’t deliver the life of your dove to wild animals!
    Don’t forget the lives of your afflicted people forever!
²⁰ Consider the covenant!
    Because the land’s dark places are full of violence.
²¹ Don’t let the oppressed live in shame.
    No, let the poor and needy praise your name!

²² God, rise up! Make your case!
    Remember how unbelieving fools insult you all day long.
²³ Don’t forget the voices of your enemies,
    the racket of your adversaries that never quits.

⁵ How long will you rage, Lord? Forever?
    How long will your anger burn like fire?
⁶ Pour out your wrath on the nations
        who don’t know you,
    on the kingdoms
        that haven’t called on your name.
⁷ They’ve devoured Jacob
    and demolished his pasture.
⁸ Don’t remember the iniquities of past generations;
    let your compassion hurry to meet us
    because we’ve been brought so low.
⁹ God of our salvation, help us
    for the glory of your name!
Deliver us and cover our sins
    for the sake of your name!
¹⁰ Why should the nations say,
    “Where’s their God now?”
Let vengeance for the spilled blood of your servants
    be known among the nations before our very eyes!
¹¹     Let the prisoners’ groaning reach you.
With your powerful arm
    spare those who are destined to die.
¹² Pay back our neighbors seven times over,
    right where it hurts,
    for the insults they used on you, Lord.
¹³ We are, after all, your people
    and the sheep of your very own pasture.
We will give you thanks forever;
    we will proclaim your praises
    from one generation to the next.

⁴ Lord God of heavenly forces,
    how long will you fume against your people’s prayer?
⁵ You’ve fed them bread made of tears;
    you’ve given them tears to drink three times over!
⁶ You’ve put us at odds with our neighbors;
    our enemies make fun of us.
⁷ Restore us, God of heavenly forces!
    Make your face shine so that we can be saved!

⁸ You brought a vine out of Egypt.
    You drove out the nations and planted it.
⁹ You cleared the ground for it;
    then it planted its roots deep, filling the land.
¹⁰ The mountains were covered by its shade;
    the mighty cedars were covered by its branches.
¹¹ It sent its branches all the way to the sea;
    its shoots went all the way to the Euphrates River.
¹² So why have you now torn down its walls
    so that all who come along can pluck its fruit,
¹³     so that any boar from the forest can tear it up,
    so that the bugs can feed on it?

¹⁴ Please come back, God of heavenly forces!
    Look down from heaven and perceive it!
Attend to this vine,
¹⁵     this root that you planted with your strong hand,
    this son whom you secured as your very own.
¹⁶ It is burned with fire. It is chopped down.
    They die at the rebuke coming from you.
¹⁷ Let your hand be with the one on your right side—
    with the one whom you secured as your own—
¹⁸     then we will not turn away from you!
Revive us so that we can call on your name.
¹⁹     Restore us, Lord God of heavenly forces!
    Make your face shine so that we can be saved!

⁸ Let me hear what the Lord God says,
    because he speaks peace to his people and to his faithful ones.
    Don’t let them return to foolish ways.
⁹ God’s salvation is very close to those who honor him
    so that his glory can live in our land.
¹⁰ Faithful love and truth have met;
    righteousness and peace have kissed.
¹¹ Truth springs up from the ground;
    righteousness gazes down from heaven.
¹² Yes, the Lord gives what is good,
    and our land yields its produce.
¹³ Righteousness walks before God,
    making a road for his steps.

³ You return people to dust,
    saying, “Go back, humans,”
⁴     because in your perspective a thousand years
    are like yesterday past,
    like a short period during the night watch.
⁵ You sweep humans away like a dream,
    like grass that is renewed in the morning.
⁶ True, in the morning it thrives, renewed,
    but come evening it withers, all dried up.
⁷ Yes, we are wasting away because of your wrath;
    we are paralyzed with fear on account of your rage.
⁸ You put our sins right in front of you,
    set our hidden faults in the light from your face.
⁹ Yes, all our days slip away because of your fury;
    we finish up our years with a whimper.
¹⁰ We live at best to be seventy years old,
    maybe eighty, if we’re strong.
But their duration brings hard work and trouble
    because they go by so quickly.
    And then we fly off.
¹¹ Who can comprehend the power of your anger?
    The honor that is due you corresponds to your wrath.
¹² Teach us to number our days
    so we can have a wise heart.

¹³ Come back to us, Lord!
    Please, quick!
    Have some compassion for your servants!
¹⁴ Fill us full every morning with your faithful love
    so we can rejoice and celebrate our whole life long.
¹⁵ Make us happy for the same amount of time that you afflicted us—
    for the same number of years that we saw only trouble.
¹⁶ Let your acts be seen by your servants;
    let your glory be seen by their children.
¹⁷ Let the kindness of the Lord our God be over us.
    Make the work of our hands last.
    Make the work of our hands last!