Psalms 123:3–4

¹¹The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

¹²I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

¹³And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

¹BE merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

⁵⁰Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;

⁵¹Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.

²And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?

³Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.

⁴Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:

³He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

¹⁴And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

³⁵And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.

¹HEAR me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.

¹BE merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.

²Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.

¹³But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

¹⁴Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

¹⁵Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

¹⁶Hear me, O Lord; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

¹³Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.

¹⁴Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.

¹⁵My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,

¹⁶For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and avenger.

⁵He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.

⁵¹The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.

³²¶ And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.

¹³Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

¹¹Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.

²⁴And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.

¹WOE to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!

⁹¶ Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.

¹¹¶ Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.

²⁹We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.

⁴I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.

¹⁹But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?

⁵They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.

⁶Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.

⁷Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

⁸They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.

⁹They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.

²¹(For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)

²⁷For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.