Psalm 42
The full text of Psalm 42 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear
before God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
'Where is your God?'
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
6 My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of the Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
'Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?'
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
'Where is your God?'
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Translation notes (2)
- Psalm 42:6a Mizar, from Hebrew mits'ar (מִצְעָר), 'smallness', names a peak otherwise unattested and unidentified; some take it as a common noun, 'the little mountain', perhaps a lesser summit of the Hermon range. The Jordan headwaters and Hermon lie at Israel's far northern edge, marking the psalmist's distance from the sanctuary in Jerusalem.
- Psalm 42:7a The Hebrew tehom (תְּהוֹם), 'deep', denotes the primeval abyss of waters, the same word used of the unformed deep in Genesis 1:2. The image of one abyss summoning another turns cosmic chaos into a figure for the psalmist's engulfing distress, perhaps prompted by the cascading headwaters of the Jordan near Hermon mentioned in the preceding verse.
About this translation
You are reading the Trinity Bible Version (TBV) — an original 2026 translation made straight from the Hebrew, in clear modern English, exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter of every book is free to read online. For the study edition — with Hebrew and Greek on every verse and the full translation notes — open Psalms in the Trinity Bible app.
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