¹O God, why have You cast us off forever?

Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?

²Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old,[#Ex 15:16]

which you have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance,

and this Mount Zion, where You have dwelt.

³Direct Your steps to the irreparable ruins;

the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.

⁴Your enemies have roared in the midst of Your meeting place;[#La 2:7]

they set up their ensigns as signs.

⁵They seem like men who wield axes

in a thicket of trees.

⁶But now they break down all its carved work[#1Ki 6:18, 29]

with axes and hammers.

⁷They set Your sanctuary on fire;[#2Ki 25:9]

they have defiled the dwelling place of Your name, bringing it to the ground.

⁸They said in their hearts, “Let us destroy them altogether.”[#Ps 83:4]

They have burned up all the meeting places of God in the land.

⁹We do not see our signs;

there is no longer any prophet,

nor is there any among us who knows how long.

¹⁰O God, how long will the adversary revile?

Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever?

¹¹Why do You withdraw Your hand, Your right hand?[#La 2:3]

Take it out of Your bosom and destroy them!

¹²For God is my King from of old,[#Ps 44:4]

working salvation in the midst of the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by Your strength;[#Ex 14:21; Ps 78:13]

You broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.

¹⁴You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces,[#Isa 27:1]

and gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

¹⁵You split open springs and torrents;[#Ex 17:5–6; Nu 20:11]

You dried up mighty rivers.

¹⁶The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;

You have prepared the light and the sun.

¹⁷You have established all the boundaries of the earth;[#Dt 32:8]

You have made summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember this, that the enemy has reviled, O Lord ,[#Dt 32:6; Ps 39:8]

and that a foolish people has blasphemed Your name.

¹⁹Do not give the life of Your turtledove to a wild animal;[#SS 2:14]

do not forget the life of Your poor forever.

²⁰Have respect for the covenant,[#Ge 17:7–8; Ps 106:45]

for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.

²¹Let not the oppressed return ashamed;

let the poor and needy praise Your name.

²²Arise, O God, plead Your own cause;

remember how the foolish man reproaches You daily.

²³Do not forget the voice of Your enemies,

the tumult of those who rise up against You, which increases continually.