¹⁸ But I said to their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols:

¹ Yahweh, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,

² lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

³ Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands,

⁴ if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, if I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary),

⁵ let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

⁶ Arise, Yahweh, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.

⁷ Let the congregation of the peoples surround you. Rule over them on high.

⁸ Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me.

⁹ Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God.

¹⁰ My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

¹¹ God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day.

¹² If a man doesn't relent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow.

¹³ He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows.

¹⁴ Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.

¹⁵ He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made.

¹⁶ The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.

¹⁷ I will give thanks to Yahweh according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of Yahweh Most High. For the Chief Musician; on an instrument of Gath. A Psalm by David.