A Psalm by Asaph.

• ¹God, the nations have come into your inheritance.
• They have defiled your holy temple.
• They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.

• ²They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky,
• the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.

• ³Their blood they have shed like water around Jerusalem.
• There was no one to bury them.

• ⁴We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
• a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.

• ⁵How long, Yahweh?
• Will you be angry forever?
• Will your jealousy burn like fire?

• ⁶Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you;
• on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name;

• ⁷For they have devoured Jacob,
• and destroyed his homeland.

• ⁸Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us.
• Let your tender mercies speedily meet us,
• for we are in desperate need.

• ⁹Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
• Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.

• ¹⁰Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
• Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes,
• that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.

• ¹¹Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you.
• According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.

• ¹²Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom
• their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.

• ¹³So we, your people and sheep of your pasture,
• will give you thanks forever.
• We will praise you forever, to all generations.