Psalms 143:3–4

⁶He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

¹O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:

²Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

⁵Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.

²²And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn thee aside from following me: wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother?

⁶Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

⁹From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

¹⁰They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

¹¹They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;

¹²Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

¹³Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

⁴I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

⁵Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

⁶Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

¹¹And Joab said unto the man that told him, And, behold, thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and I would have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a girdle.

⁴Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.

³For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them. Selah.

¹¹¶ Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

¹²I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.

¹³For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

³When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.

³I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

⁴⁴And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

³For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.

⁴My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

⁵Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.

²⁷Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend.

¹HEAR my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee.

⁸¹My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.

⁸²Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me?

⁸³For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.

⁴Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:

¹⁶Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.

²From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.