Psalms 44

1 To the Chief Musician. For the Sons of Korah. An Instructive Psalm. O God! with our own ears, have we heard, Our fathers, have recounted to us, —The work thou didst work, In their day, In the days of aforetime:

For the leader. Of the Korahites. A maskil. O God, we have heard with our ears, all our ancestors have told us of the work that you wrought in their day, your wonders in days of old,

2 Thou thyself, with thine own hand—Didst dispossess, nations, and didst plant them, Didst break peoples in pieces, and didst spread them out:

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

3 For, not by their own sword, gat they possession of the land, Nor did, their own arm, win victory for them, —But thine own right hand, and thine own arm, and the light of thy face, Because thou hadst accepted them.

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 favor.

4 Thou thyself, art my king, O God, Command thou the victories of Jacob.

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

5 By thee, will we thrust at, our adversaries, In thy Name, will we tread down our assailants;

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

6 For, not in my bow, will I trust, Nor shall, my sword, give me victory;

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

7 For thou hast saved us from our adversaries, And, them who hated us, hast thou put to shame.

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

8 In God, have we boasted all the day, And, thy Name—unto times age-abiding, will we praise. (Selah)

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

9 But nay thou hast rejected, and confounded us, And wilt not go forth with our hosts;

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

10 Thou sufferest us to turn back from the adversary, And, they who hate us, have plundered at will:

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

11 Thou dost give us up like sheep to be devoured, And, amongst the nations, hast thou scattered us.

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

12 Thou dost sell thy people for, no-value, And hast not made increase by their price.

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

13 Thou dost make us, A reproach to our neighbours, A mockery and a derision to them who are round about us:

You have made us the butt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of all round us.

14 Thou dost make us, A by-word among the nations, —A shaking of the head among the peoples.

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

15 All the day, is my confusion before me, And, the shame of my face, hath covered me:

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

16 At the voice of him who reproacheth and revileth, At the face of the foe and avenger.

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

17 All this, hath come upon us, Yet had we not forgotten thee, Neither had we dealt falsely with thy covenant;

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

18 Our heart had not drawn back, Nor had our goings swerved from thy path;

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

19 That thou shouldst have crushed us down in the place of wild dogs, And covered us over with a deadly shadow.

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

20 If we had forgotten the Name of our God, And had spread forth our hands unto the GOD of the foreigner,

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

21 Would not, God, have searched into this, Seeing that, he, knoweth the secrets of the heart?

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

22 Surely, for thy sake, have we been slain all the day, We have been accounted as sheep for slaughter.

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

23 Awake thou! wherefore shouldst thou sleep, O Lord? Bestir thee! do not reject us altogether!

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

24 Wherefore shouldst thou hide, thy face? Shouldst forget our humiliation and our oppression?

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

25 For our soul, sinketh down to the dust, Our body, cleaveth to the earth.

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

26 Arise to our help, And ransom us, because of thine own lovingkindness.

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