OEBcth - Psalms - 44

44:1  O God, we have heard with our ears, our ancestors have told us of the work that you wrought in their day, your wonders in days of old,

44:2  uprooting and crushing the nations, then planting and settling them. For it wasn’t their own sword that won them the land,

44:3  it was not their own arm that brought them the victory. Yours was the hand and the arm, yours was the face that shone on them with favour.

44:4  It was you, my king and my God, that ordained the victories of Jacob.

44:5  Through you we can thrust back our foes, and by your name tread down our assailants:

44:6  for not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword win me the victory.

44:7  Our victory comes from you, and confusion to those who hate us.

44:8  In God we boast all the day long, and your name will we praise forever. (Selah)

44:9  Yet you have spurned and disgraced us, in not going forth with our armies,

44:10  and in making us flee from the foe, so that those who hated us plundered us.

44:11  You have let us be eaten like sheep, you have scattered us over the world,

44:12  sold your people for a pittance, and getting no gain from their price.

44:13  You have made us the butt of our neighbours, the derision and scorn of all round us.

44:14  O’er the world you have made us a byword, the nations at us shake their heads.

44:15  My disgrace is forever before me, my face is covered with shame,

44:16  at the words of blasphemer and scoffer, at the sight of the foe and the vengeful.

44:17  All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten you nor falsely dealt with your covenant.

44:18  Our heart has not turned back, nor our steps declined from your way,

44:19  that you thus should have crushed us down, and covered us over with gloom, in the place where the jackals roam.

44:20  Had we forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a god that was strange,

44:21  would God not have searched this out? For he knows the heart and its secrets.

44:22  But in your cause it is we are killed all the day, and counted as sheep for the slaughter.

44:23  Rouse yourself, why do you sleep Lord? Awake, cast us not off forever.

44:24  Why do you hide your face, forgetting our stress and our misery?

44:25  For we have sunk down to the dust, our bodies cling to the ground.

44:26  Arise, come to our help: for your love’s sake, ransom us.