| 1. | A Psalm of Asaph. Only -- good to Israel `is' God, to the clean of heart. And I -- as a little thing, My feet have been turned aside, |
| 2. | As nothing, have my steps slipped, For I have been envious of the boastful, |
| 3. | The peace of the wicked I see, That there are no bands at their death, |
| 4. | And their might `is' firm. |
| 5. | In the misery of mortals they are not, And with common men they are not plagued. |
| 6. | Therefore hath pride encircled them, Violence covereth them as a dress. |
| 7. | Their eye hath come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed; |
| 8. | They do corruptly, And they speak in the wickedness of oppression, From on high they speak. |
| 9. | They have set in the heavens their mouth, And their tongue walketh in the earth. |
| 10. | Therefore do His people return hither, And waters of fulness are wrung out to them. |
| 11. | And they have said, `How hath God known? And is there knowledge in the Most High?' |
| 12. | Lo, these `are' the wicked and easy ones of the age, They have increased strength. |
| 13. | Only -- a vain thing! I have purified my heart, And I wash in innocency my hands, |
| 14. | And I am plagued all the day, And my reproof `is' every morning. |
| 15. | If I have said, `I recount thus,' Lo, a generation of Thy sons I have deceived. |
| 16. | And I think to know this, Perverseness it `is' in mine eyes, |
| 17. | Till I come in to the sanctuaries of God, I attend to their latter end. |
| 18. | Only, in slippery places Thou dost set them, Thou hast caused them to fall to desolations. |
| 19. | How have they become a desolation as in a moment, They have been ended -- consumed from terrors. |
| 20. | As a dream from awakening, O Lord, In awaking, their image Thou despisest. |
| 21. | For my heart doth show itself violent, And my reins prick themselves, |
| 22. | And I am brutish, and do not know. A beast I have been with Thee. |
| 23. | And I `am' continually with Thee, Thou hast laid hold on my right hand. |
| 24. | With Thy counsel Thou dost lead me, And after honour dost receive me. |
| 25. | Whom have I in the heavens? And with Thee none I have desired in earth. |
| 26. | Consumed hath been my flesh and my heart, The rock of my heart and my portion `is' God to the age. |
| 27. | For, lo, those far from Thee do perish, Thou hast cut off every one, Who is going a whoring from Thee. |
| 28. | And I -- nearness of God to me `is' good, I have placed in the Lord Jehovah my refuge, To recount all Thy works! |