Psalm 141
The full text of Psalm 141 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
A Psalm of David.
1 O LORD, I call upon you; hasten to me!
Give ear to my voice when I call to you!
2 Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!
3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;
keep watch over the door of my lips!
4 Do not let my heart incline to any evil,
to busy myself with wicked deeds
in company with men who work iniquity,
and let me not eat of their delicacies!
5 Let a righteous man strike me — it is a kindness;
let him rebuke me — it is oil for my head;
let my head not refuse it.
Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds.
6 When their judges are thrown over the cliff,
then they shall hear my words, for they are pleasant.
7 As when one plows and breaks up the earth,
so shall our bones be scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
8 But my eyes are toward you, O LORD my Lord;
in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless!
9 Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me
and from the snares of evildoers!
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by safely.
Translation notes (2)
- Psalm 141:5a The Hebrew of verses 5-7 is among the most obscure in the Psalter. The Masoretic Text here reads shemen rosh (שֶׁמֶן רֹאשׁ), 'oil of the head', while the Septuagint reflects a text with rasha, 'wicked', yielding 'let not the oil of the wicked anoint my head'. This translation follows the Masoretic Text, taking the righteous man's rebuke as itself the welcome anointing.
- Psalm 141:7a The Hebrew of this verse is among the most difficult in the Psalter. The Masoretic Text reads atsamenu, 'our bones', but the Septuagint and the Syriac Peshitta read 'their bones', linking the verse to the fallen judges of verse 6. The simile compares bones strewn at the grave's opening to clods of earth turned up and split by the plow.
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