9 Confound, O Lord, divide their tongues; [B] Truly, I have seen violence and strife in the city.

10 Day and night, upon her walls, it surrounds her; Misery and distress is in the midst of her;

11 Profligacy is in the midst of her;

Deceit and guile depart not from her streets.

12 Truly no enemy reviled me, or I would have borne it;

Not one that bore me open hatred magnified him

self against me;

For from such a one I would have hidden my

self.

* The sentiment is, that he should with more ease provide a shelter against the storms in the wilderness, than against the malice of man in the city.

13 But thou, a Man, put upon-a-level with myself, My confident, and my familiar friend.

14 We took delight to converse of our secrets together,

In the house of God we walked together in the

crowd.

PART III.

15 Let death exalt his claim [C] upon them,

Let them go down alive into hell;

For wickedness is in their dwellings, in the very

midst of them. *

16 As for me, I call upon God,

And Jehovah shall save me.

17 Evening, and morning, and noon-day,

I pine inwardly †, and am distracted: But he will hear my voice;

"In the inmost recesses of their dwelling-houses.

† See verse 2.

*

18 Securing my person from the battle that is

against me,

For they who stood on my side told for many. [D]

19 The Omnipresent One will hear,

And he that abideth of old [E] will give them their

due;

Inasmuch as they are incapable of change,

And will not fear God.

20 He hath put forth his hand against those with whom he was at peace,

He hath violated his own covenant.

21 Smooth is his buttered speech, [F]
When war is in his heart;

His words are softer than oil,
When they are drawn swords.

ORACULAR VOICE.

22 Cast thy care upon Jehovah, for he will sustain

thee;

* Literally, "redeeming my person in peace."

He will not suffer the JUST ONE to be tossed about

for ever,

PSALMIST.

23 Thou, then, O God, wilt bring them down into the pit of destruction;

The men of blood and deceit shall not finish half

their days:

But I will put-trust in thee.

PSALM LVI.

A PRAYER OF THE MESSIAH. [A]

1 Take pity upon me, O God, for men [B] trampleme-under-foot; *

Every day the foe [C] harasseth me.

* «Trample-me-under-foot." The original has an allusion to the curse upon the serpent, which cannot be preserved in a translation, for want of a word, which, like the Hebrew verb used here, according to the reading of the old copies, and in Gen. III, 15. may signify either to trample, or to bruise.

2 My enemies trample-me-under-foot * [D] every day,

For many they be who fight against me from on high. [E]

3 What time [F] I am afraid,

I will put-trust in thee.

4 God shall be the theme of my praise t: He-hathpassed-his-word, [G]

Therefore in God I have-placed-my-trust: I will

not fear

What flesh can do unto me.

5 Continually they wrest [H] my words against me; All their study is for mischief.

6 They make a stir; [I]

the-watch; [K]

*See Note, preceding page.

-they-are-ever-upon

+"God shall be the theme of my praise," literally, "I will praise "God;" but the original word signifies, not devotional praise addressed to God himself, but the public praise of God addressed to men ;-the celebration of him as the Psalmist's deliverer, and the avenger of his wrongs. This force of the original word I cannot express but by periphrasis.