Psalm 7
The full text of Psalm 7 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
A shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.
1 O LORD my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all who pursue me, and deliver me,
2 lest he tear my soul like a lion,
ripping it apart with no one to rescue.
3 O LORD my God, if I have done this—
if there is injustice on my hands,
4 if I have repaid my ally with evil,
or plundered my foe without cause—
5 let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it;
let him trample my life to the ground
and lay my honor in the dust. Selah
6 Rise up, O LORD, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my foes.
Awake for me; you have commanded justice.
7 Let the assembly of peoples gather around you,
and over it return on high.
8 The LORD judges the peoples;
vindicate me, O LORD,
according to my righteousness
and according to my integrity that is in me.
9 Let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
but establish the righteous—
you who test hearts and minds,
O righteous God.
10 My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge,
and a God who has indignation every day.
12 If one does not turn back, he sharpens his sword;
he has bent his bow and made it ready.
13 He has prepared for himself deadly weapons;
he makes his arrows into fiery shafts.
14 Look—he conceives iniquity,
is pregnant with trouble,
and gives birth to falsehood.
15 He digs a pit and hollows it out,
and falls into the hole he has made.
16 His trouble returns upon his own head,
and his violence comes down on his own skull.
17 I will give thanks to the LORD for his righteousness,
and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.
Translation notes (7)
- Psalm 7:4a This can also be translated as "if I have let my enemy go free without cause," because the Hebrew is ambiguous here.
- Psalm 7:6a This can also be translated as "awake for me the judgment you have ordained."
- Psalm 7:7a The Hebrew imperative shuvah (שׁוּבָה), 'return', is difficult here, and some scholars emend it to shevah, 'take your seat'. The Masoretic Text is retained: the LORD, having roused himself for judgment, is asked to resume his throne on high above the assembled nations, an image of the divine courtroom continued in the next verse.
- Psalm 7:9a The Hebrew phrase libboth u-khelayoth literally means "hearts and kidneys"; in ancient thought, the kidneys were considered the seat of deep emotions.
- Psalm 7:12a The subject of the verb is ambiguous; "he" may refer to God or to the wicked person, though the context suggests that God prepares judgment.
- Psalm 7:14a The Hebrew traces evil through the full course of gestation: chibbel (חִבֵּל), 'to conceive' or 'to travail', harah (הָרָה), 'to be pregnant', and yalad (יָלַד), 'to give birth'. The metaphor presents the wicked man's scheme as an inward growth that must come to term; what is finally delivered is sheqer (שֶׁקֶר), 'falsehood', a plan that betrays its own maker, as the next verse makes explicit.
- Psalm 7:16a Hebrew amal (עָמָל), 'trouble', denotes both mischief plotted and the misery it produces, so the plotter's own device becomes his punishment. The word qodqod (קָדְקֹד), 'skull', literally the crown of the head, marks the violence as landing precisely where it was aimed. The image of self-inflicted retribution recurs in Proverbs 26:27 and Ecclesiastes 10:8.
About this translation
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