| 1 | A Psalm of Asaph. Only—good to Israel [is] God, to the clean of heart. And I—as a little thing, My feet have been turned aside, |
| 2 | As nothing, have my steps slipped, For I have been envious of the boastful, |
| 3 | The peace of the wicked I see, That there are no bands at their death, |
| 4 | And their might [is] firm. |
| 5 | In the misery of mortals they are not, And with common men they are not plagued. |
| 6 | Therefore hath pride encircled them, Violence covereth them as a dress. |
| 7 | Their eye hath come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed; |
| 8 | They do corruptly, And they speak in the wickedness of oppression, From on high they speak. |
| 9 | They have set in the heavens their mouth, And their tongue walketh in the earth. |
| 10 | Therefore do His people return hither, And waters of fulness are wrung out to them. |
| 11 | And they have said, 'How hath God known? And is there knowledge in the Most High?' |
| 12 | Lo, these [are] the wicked and easy ones of the age, They have increased strength. |
| 13 | Only—a vain thing! I have purified my heart, And I wash in innocency my hands, |
| 14 | And I am plagued all the day, And my reproof [is] every morning. |
| 15 | If I have said, 'I recount thus,' Lo, a generation of Thy sons I have deceived. |
| 16 | And I think to know this, Perverseness it [is] in mine eyes, |
| 17 | Till I come in to the sanctuaries of God, I attend to their latter end. |
| 18 | Only, in slippery places Thou dost set them, Thou hast caused them to fall to desolations. |
| 19 | How have they become a desolation as in a moment, They have been ended—consumed from terrors. |
| 20 | As a dream from awakening, O Lord, In awaking, their image Thou despisest. |
| 21 | For my heart doth show itself violent, And my reins prick themselves, |
| 22 | And I am brutish, and do not know. A beast I have been with Thee. |
| 23 | And I [am] continually with Thee, Thou hast laid hold on my right hand. |
| 24 | With Thy counsel Thou dost lead me, And after honour dost receive me. |
| 25 | Whom have I in the heavens? And with Thee none I have desired in earth. |
| 26 | Consumed hath been my flesh and my heart, The rock of my heart and my portion [is] God to the age. |
| 27 | For, lo, those far from Thee do perish, Thou hast cut off every one, Who is going a whoring from Thee. |
| 28 | And I—nearness of God to me [is] good, I have placed in the Lord Jehovah my refuge, To recount all Thy works! |