Complaint about a Friend's Treachery

To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.

1Give ear to my prayer, O God;

do not hide yourself from my supplication.

2Attend to me, and answer me;

I am troubled in my complaint.

I am distraught 3by the noise of the enemy,

because of the clamour of the wicked.

For they bring55.3 Cn Compare Gk: Heb they cause to totter trouble upon me,

and in anger they cherish enmity against me.

4My heart is in anguish within me,

the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

5Fear and trembling come upon me,

and horror overwhelms me.

6And I say, ‘O that I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and be at rest;

7truly, I would flee far away;

I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah

8I would hurry to find a shelter for myself

from the raging wind and tempest.’

9Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech;

for I see violence and strife in the city.

10Day and night they go around it

on its walls,

and iniquity and trouble are within it;

11ruin is in its midst;

oppression and fraud

do not depart from its marketplace.

12It is not enemies who taunt me—

I could bear that;

it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me—

I could hide from them.

13But it is you, my equal,

my companion, my familiar friend,

14with whom I kept pleasant company;

we walked in the house of God with the throng.

15Let death come upon them;

let them go down alive to Sheol;

for evil is in their homes and in their hearts.

16But I call upon God,

and the LORD will save me.

17Evening and morning and at noon

I utter my complaint and moan,

and he will hear my voice.

18He will redeem me unharmed

from the battle that I wage,

for many are arrayed against me.

19God, who is enthroned from of old, Selah

will hear, and will humble them—

because they do not change,

and do not fear God.

20My companion laid hands on a friend

and violated a covenant with me55.20 Heb lacks with me

21with speech smoother than butter,

but with a heart set on war;

with words that were softer than oil,

but in fact were drawn swords.

22Cast your burden55.22 Or Cast what he has given you on the LORD,

and he will sustain you;

he will never permit

the righteous to be moved.

23But you, O God, will cast them down

into the lowest pit;

the bloodthirsty and treacherous

shall not live out half their days.

But I will trust in you.