1. Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? [why] hidest thou [thyself] in times of trouble?
2. The wicked in [his] pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
3. For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, [whom] the LORD abhorreth.
4. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek [after God:] God [is] not in all his thoughts.
5. His ways are always grievous; thy judgments [are] far above out of his sight: [as for] all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
6. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for [I shall] never [be] in adversity.
7. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue [is] mischief and vanity.
8. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.
9. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
10. He croucheth, [and] humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
11. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see [it.]
12. Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.
13. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require [it.]
14. Thou hast seen [it;] for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite [it] with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
15. Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil [man:] seek out his wickedness [till] thou find none.
16. The LORD [is] King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.
17. LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
18. To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.