The Book of Psalms

⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑

- Chapter 59 -

Deliver me from my enemies

(1 Samuel 19:1-24)

Unto the end. May you not destroy. Of David, with the inscription of a title, when Saul sent and watched his house, in order to execute him.(a)

Rescue me from my enemies, my God, and free me from those who rise up against me.

Rescue me from those who work iniquity, and save me from men of blood.

For behold, they have seized my soul. The strong have rushed upon me.

And it is neither my iniquity, nor my sin, O Lord. I have run and gone directly, without iniquity.

Rise up to meet me, and see: even you, O Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel. Reach out to visit all nations. Do not take pity on all those who work iniquity.

They will return toward evening, and they will suffer hunger like dogs, and they will wander around the city.

Behold, they will speak with their mouth, and a sword is in their lips: “For who has heard us?”

And you, O Lord, will laugh at them. You will lead all the Gentiles to nothing.(b)

I will guard my strength toward you, for you are God, my supporter.(c)

My God, his mercy will precede me.(d)

God will oversee my enemies for me. Do not slay them, lest at times my people may forget them. Scatter them by your virtue. And depose them, O Lord, my protector,

by the offense of their mouth and by the speech of their lips. And may they be caught in their arrogance. And, for their cursing and lying, they will be made known

at the consummation, in the fury of the consummation, and so they will be no more. And they will know that God will rule over Jacob, even to the ends of the earth.

They will return toward evening, and they will suffer hunger like dogs, and they will wander around the city.

They will be dispersed in order to gnaw, and truly, when they will not have been satisfied, they will murmur.

But I will sing your strength, and I will extol your mercy, in the morning. For you have been my supporter and my refuge in the day of my tribulation.

To you, my helper, I will sing psalms. For you are God, my supporter. My God is my mercy.

Footnotes

(a)58:1 Or, ‘Lest you destroy.’(Conte)

(b)58:9 In this context, from the point of view of Catholicism, the ‘Gentes’ (Gentiles) are not the non-Jews, but rather the non-believers, those who reject God and His Way.(Conte)

(c)58:10 The Douay-Rheims and Challoner Douay-Rheims lack the word ‘God’ in this verse, even though the Clementine Vulgate has the word God. Occasional differences between the Douay and the Clementine Vulgate lead me to conclude that Challoner et al. were working from a slightly different edition of the Sixtus V and Clement VIII Latin Vulgate than I have available to me.(Conte)

(d)58:11 Or, ‘his mercy will intercept me.’ Or, ‘his mercy will go before me.’(Conte)