• Plea for Judgment of False Accusers

  • 1 Do not keep silent, O God of my praise!
  • 2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful Have opened against me; They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
  • 3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause.
  • 4 In return for my love they are my accusers, But I give myself to prayer.
  • 5 Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love.
  • 6 Set a wicked man over him, And let an accuser stand at his right hand.
  • 7 When he is judged, let him be found guilty, And let his prayer become sin.
  • 8 Let his days be few, And let another take his office.
  • 9 Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow.
  • 10 Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg; Let them seek their bread also from their desolate places.
  • 11 Let the creditor seize all that he has, And let strangers plunder his labor.
  • 12 Let there be none to extend mercy to him, Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
  • 13 Let his posterity be cut off, And in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
  • 14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
  • 15 Let them be continually before the Lord, That He may cut off the memory of them from the earth;
  • 16 Because he did not remember to show mercy, But persecuted the poor and needy man, That he might even slay the broken in heart.
  • 17 As he loved cursing, so let it come to him; As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.
  • 18 As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, So let it enter his body like water, And like oil into his bones.
  • 19 Let it be to him like the garment which covers him, And for a belt with which he girds himself continually.
  • 20 Let this be the Lord’s reward to my accusers, And to those who speak evil against my person.
  • 21 But You, O God the Lord, Deal with me for Your name’s sake; Because Your mercy is good, deliver me.
  • 22 For I am poor and needy, And my heart is wounded within me.
  • 23 I am gone like a shadow when it lengthens; I am shaken off like a locust.
  • 24 My knees are weak through fasting, And my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.
  • 25 I also have become a reproach to them; When they look at me, they shake their heads.
  • 26 Help me, O Lord my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy,
  • 27 That they may know that this is Your hand— That You, Lord, have done it!
  • 28 Let them curse, but You bless; When they arise, let them be ashamed, But let Your servant rejoice.
  • 29 Let my accusers be clothed with shame, And let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle.
  • 30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude.
  • 31 For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, To save him from those who condemn him.