Psalm 35
The full text of Psalm 35 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
Of David.
1 Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me;
fight against those who fight against me!
2 Take hold of shield and buckler
and rise for my help!
3 Draw the spear and javelin
against my pursuers!
Say to my soul,
'I am your salvation!'
4 Let them be put to shame and dishonor
who seek after my life!
Let them be turned back and disappointed
who devise evil against me!
5 Let them be like chaff before the wind,
with the angel of the LORD driving them away!
6 Let their way be dark and slippery,
with the angel of the LORD pursuing them!
7 For without cause they hid their net for me;
without cause they dug a pit for my life.
8 Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it!
And let the net that he hid ensnare him;
let him fall into it—to his destruction!
9 Then my soul shall rejoice in the LORD,
exulting in his salvation.
10 All my bones shall say,
'O LORD, who is like you,
delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him,
the poor and needy from him who robs him?'
11 Malicious witnesses rise up;
they ask me of things that I do not know.
12 They repay me evil for good;
my soul is bereft.
13 But I, when they were sick—
I wore sackcloth;
I afflicted myself with fasting;
I prayed with head bowed on my chest.
14 I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;
as one who laments his mother,
I bowed down in mourning.
15 But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered;
they gathered against me,
wretches whom I did not know
tore at me without ceasing;
16 like profane mockers at a feast,
they gnash their teeth at me.
17 How long, O Lord, will you look on?
Rescue me from their destruction,
my precious life from the lions!
18 I will thank you in the great congregation;
in the mighty throng I will praise you.
19 Let not those rejoice over me
who are wrongfully my foes,
and let not those wink the eye
who hate me without cause.
20 For they do not speak peace,
but against those who are quiet in the land
they devise words of deceit.
21 They open wide their mouths against me;
they say, 'Aha, Aha!
Our eyes have seen it!'
22 You have seen, O LORD; be not silent!
O Lord, be not far from me!
23 Stir up yourself and awake for my vindication,
for my cause, my God and my Lord!
24 Vindicate me, O LORD, my God,
according to your righteousness,
and let them not rejoice over me!
25 Let them not say in their hearts,
'Aha, our heart's desire!'
Let them not say, 'We have swallowed him up!'
26 Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether
who rejoice at my calamity!
Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor
who magnify themselves against me!
27 Let those who delight in my righteousness
shout for joy and be glad
and say evermore,
'Great is the LORD,
who delights in the welfare of his servant!'
28 Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness
and of your praise all the day long.
Translation notes (7)
- Psalm 35:3a Hebrew usegor (וּסְגֹר) is disputed: read as a verb it means 'close' or 'block' the way against the pursuers, the sense followed in the King James tradition, but many scholars take it as a noun cognate with the Greek sagaris, a battle-axe, making it a second weapon parallel to the spear; the rendering 'javelin' reflects this weapon interpretation.
- Psalm 35:7a The imagery reflects ancient trapping practice: hunters dug a pit, stretched a net over or within it, and concealed it with brush to catch game. The Masoretic Text places shachat, 'pit', in the first line, literally 'the pit of their net'; many interpreters, following the parallel with the verb 'dug', read the pit with the second line, as here.
- Psalm 35:10a Hebrew atsmotai (עַצְמוֹתַי), 'my bones', is retained literally; in Hebrew idiom the bones stand for the whole person at its inmost frame, so that the entire self joins the praise. The question mi khamokha, 'who is like you', echoes the song at the sea in Exodus 15:11.
- Psalm 35:13a Hebrew utfillati al-cheqi tashuv, literally 'and my prayer kept returning to my bosom,' is here understood as prayer murmured with the head sunk upon the chest, a mourner's posture; others take it to mean the prayer went unanswered or came back in blessing on the one who prayed. Sackcloth and fasting were Israel's customary rites of grief, here performed for enemies as though for kin.
- Psalm 35:16a The text here is difficult. The Hebrew suggests "godless mockers of a cake," possibly referring to parasites who mock for food.
- Psalm 35:19a To wink the eye (Hebrew qarats ayin) is a gesture of malicious conspiracy in Hebrew idiom, signaling secret gloating rather than friendliness (compare Proverbs 6:13; 10:10). The phrase soneai chinnam, 'those who hate me without cause', is quoted by Jesus in John 15:25 as fulfilled in the world's hatred of him.
- Psalm 35:21a The doubled exclamation he'ach (הֶאָח), 'Aha,' expresses malicious glee at another's misfortune, as in Ezekiel 25:3 and 36:2, where it voices gloating over Jerusalem's fall. The taunt 'our eyes have seen it' claims eyewitness proof of the psalmist's ruin, a boast answered in the next verse by the appeal that the LORD himself has seen.
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