3 Truly thou art my rock and my castle,

And for thy name's sake lead me and guide me.

4 Extricate me from the net which they have spread

for me unseen,

For thou art the source-of-my-strength.*

5 Into thy hand I give-in-charge my spirit,

Thou hast

truth!

delivered me, O Jehovah, God of

6 Thou hatest [B] them that wait upon the vanities of delusion. ‡

But I upon Jehovah have placed-my-trust.

7 I shall exult [C] and rejoice in thy tender love, When thou shalt have regarded my affliction, [And] accepted my person in adversities;

* Literally," my strengthener."

+ Thou hast, i. e. "Thou most surely wilt.-The thing is as certain as if it were done."

See Jonah, II, 8.

8 When not delivering-me-up-bound* into the hand

of the enemy,

Thou shalt have set my feet in an ample space.

9 Pity me, O Jehovah, for trouble-besets me, My eye is wasted with fretting,

My soul pines, and my person is emaciated. [D]

10 Truly my life is consumed in sorrow,

And my years in groaning;

My strength is exhausted by my punishment,†
And
my bones are-mouldering-away. [E]

11 I am become a reproach among all mine enemies, And a nuisance [F] to my neighbours, and a fright to all who know me. Any-who-see-me abroad, flee from me.

12 I am forgotten like one dead,

I am out-of-mind like a broken vessel.

* To express clearly what I take to be the sense, I have taken the liberty to render a verb by a participle. For the sake of perspicuity, a translator must sometimes abandon the idioms of syntax in the original language.

+ LXX. Vulg. and Syr. seem to have read, "y, for they translate "my poverty."

13 Truly I have heard the angry muttering of the

mighty,

Of them that are the general dread, [G]

While they sit-in-council together against me;
They have laid-a-plot to take my life.

14 But I have-placed-my-trust in thee, O Jehovah, I have said, Thou art my God.

15 My fortunes are in thy hand;

Deliver me from the hand of my enemy, and from my persecutor.

16 Let thy countenance shine upon thy servant, Save me in thy tender-mercy.

17 O Jehovah, let me not be-brought-to-shame, that I have called upon thee. Let the impious be-brought-to-shame. [H]

ORACULAR VOICE.

hell;

-They shall be motionless in

18 The lying lips shall be struck dumb,

Which speak hard things against the JUST ONE,
In pride and scorn.

THANKSGIVING.

19 How great is thy goodness, which thou hast in

store for them that fear thee,

Which thou hast wrought for them, that take shelter with thee, in the sight of the sons

of men.

20 Thou shalt hide them, in the secret-place of thy presence, from the conspiracies of men.

Thou shalt screen them in thy pavilion from the abuse of tongues.

21 Blessed be Jehovah!

For he hath set apart his saints for himself, in a

city [I] of defence.

22 I indeed said in my consternation,

I am exiled from thy presence:

* Literally, "I am cut off from before thine eyes."

But thou hast heard the voice of my entreaty,

Upon my crying unto thee.

23 Love

ye the Jehovah, all his saints:

Jehovah preserveth the faithful,

And requiteth unto him that is foremost* in the deeds of arrogance.

24 Take courage, and let your heart be firm,†

All

ye who have hope in Jehovah.

PSALM XXXII.

THE BELIEVER'S PENITENTIAL CONFESSION.

1 BLESSED is he who is eased-of-the-burden of his

wilful-crimes,

Whose trespasses are covered.

* Or " that excelleth," or " is abundant."

+ See XXVII, 14.