Psalms 94

A Prayer for Retribution against Oppressors

¹O Yahweh, God of vengeance,

God of vengeance, shine forth.

²Rise up, O Judge of the earth.

Repay upon the proud what is their rightful due.

³How long will the wicked, O Yahweh,

how long will the wicked exult?

⁴They gush words unrestrained.[#Literally “They gush, they speak,” which is probably a hendiadys]

All the evildoers boast.

⁵They crush your people, O Yahweh;

they oppress your inheritance.

⁶They kill widow and stranger,

and they murder orphans,

⁷while they say, “Yah does not see,”[#Hebrew “and”; #A shortened form of “Yahweh”]

and “The God of Jacob does not pay attention.”

⁸You pay attention, O brutes among the people.

And you fools, when you will show insight?

⁹Will the one who planted the ear not hear?

Will the one who formed the eye not see?

¹⁰Will the one who instructs nations not rebuke,

the one who teaches humankind knowledge?

¹¹Yahweh knows the thoughts of humankind,

that they are to no purpose.

¹²Blessed is the man, O Yah, whom you instruct

and teach from your law,

¹³to give him rest from days of trouble,

until a pit is dug for the wicked.

¹⁴For Yahweh will not abandon his people,

nor forsake his inheritance.

¹⁵For judgment will return to righteousness,[#That is, the court system will operate correctly]

and all the upright in heart will follow after it.

¹⁶Who rose up for me against the wicked?

Who stood up for me against the workers of iniquity?

¹⁷If Yahweh had not been my help,

my soul would soon have dwelt in silence.

¹⁸When I thought, “My foot is slipping,”[#Hebrew “If/When I said,” that is, said to myself]

your loyal love, O Yahweh, supported me.

¹⁹When my troubled thoughts were many within me,[#Literally “in my inward parts”]

your consolations cheered my soul.

²⁰Can there be allied with you a throne of destruction,

one that forms trouble based on statute?

²¹They band together against the life of the righteous,

and declare the blameless guilty of blood.

²²But Yahweh has become my high stronghold,

and my God has become my rock of refuge.

²³And he will repay on them their iniquity,

and by their evil he will destroy them.

Yahweh our God will destroy them.