1Therefore have you rejected us, O God, for ever? therefore is your wrath kindled against the sheep of your pasture? 2Remember your congregation which you have purchased from the beginning; you did ransom the rod of your inheritance; this mount Sion wherein you have lived. 3Lift up your hands against their pride continually; because of all that the enemy has done wickedly in your holy places. 4And they that hate you have boasted in the midst of your feast; they have set up their standards for signs, 5ignorantly as it were in the entrance above; 6they cut down its doors at once with axes as in a wood of trees; they have broken it down with hatchet and stone cutter. 7They have burnt your sanctuary with fire to the ground; they have profaned the Gr. tabernacle. habitation of your name. 8They have said in their heart, even all their kindred together, Come, let us abolish the feasts of the Lord from the earth. 9We have not seen our signs; there is no longer a prophet; and God will not know us any more. 10How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach? shall the enemy provoke your name forever? 11Therefore turn you away your hand, and your right hand from the midst of your bosom for ever? 12But God is our King Gr. before the age. of old; he has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth. 13You did establish the sea, in your might, you did break to pieces the heads of the Or, serpents. dragons in the water. 14You did break to pieces the heads of the dragon; you did give him for meat to the Ethiopian nations. 15You did cleave fountains and torrents; you dried up Heb. rivers of Etham. mighty rivers. 16The day is your, and the night is your; you have prepared the sun and the moon. 17You have made all the borders of the earth; you have made summer and spring. 18Remember this your creation: an enemy has reproached the Lord, and a foolish people has provoked your name. 19Deliver not to the wild beasts a soul that gives praise to you: forget not for ever the souls of your poor. 20Look upon your covenant: for the dark places of the earth are filled with the habitations of iniquity. 21let not the afflicted and shamed one be rejected: the poor and needy shall praise your name. 22Arise, O God, plead your cause: remember your reproaches that come from the foolish one all the day. 23Forget not the voice of your suppliants: let the pride of them that hate you continually ascend before you.