Plea for Judgment of False Accusers

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

109 Do not keep silent,O God of my praise!² For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitfulHave 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^[a] 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^[b] 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.