| Chapter 73 |
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,
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2 | As nothing, have my steps slipped, For I have been envious of the boastful,
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3 | The peace of the wicked I see, That there are no bands at their death,
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4 | And their might [is] firm.
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5 | In the misery of mortals they are not, And with common men they are not plagued.
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6 | Therefore hath pride encircled them, Violence covereth them as a dress.
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7 | Their eye hath come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed;
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8 | They do corruptly, And they speak in the wickedness of oppression, From on high they speak.
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9 | They have set in the heavens their mouth, And their tongue walketh in the earth.
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10 | Therefore do His people return hither, And waters of fulness are wrung out to them.
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11 | And they have said, 'How hath God known? And is there knowledge in the Most High?'
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12 | Lo, these [are] the wicked and easy ones of the age, They have increased strength.
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13 | Only -- a vain thing! I have purified my heart, And I wash in innocency my hands,
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14 | And I am plagued all the day, And my reproof [is] every morning.
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15 | If I have said, 'I recount thus,' Lo, a generation of Thy sons I have deceived.
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16 | And I think to know this, Perverseness it [is] in mine eyes,
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17 | Till I come in to the sanctuaries of God, I attend to their latter end.
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18 | Only, in slippery places Thou dost set them, Thou hast caused them to fall to desolations.
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19 | How have they become a desolation as in a moment, They have been ended -- consumed from terrors.
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20 | As a dream from awakening, O Lord, In awaking, their image Thou despisest.
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21 | For my heart doth show itself violent, And my reins prick themselves,
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22 | And I am brutish, and do not know. A beast I have been with Thee.
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23 | And I [am] continually with Thee, Thou hast laid hold on my right hand.
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24 | With Thy counsel Thou dost lead me, And after honour dost receive me.
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25 | Whom have I in the heavens? And with Thee none I have desired in earth.
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26 | Consumed hath been my flesh and my heart, The rock of my heart and my portion [is] God to the age.
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27 | For, lo, those far from Thee do perish, Thou hast cut off every one, Who is going a whoring from Thee.
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28 | And I -- nearness of God to me [is] good, I have placed in the Lord Jehovah my refuge, To recount all Thy works!
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