1  Contend, O Lord, with those who ycontend with me;

zfight against those who fight against me!

2  Take hold of ashield and buckler

and rise for my help!

3  Draw the spear and javelin1

against my pursuers!

Say to my soul,

“I am your salvation!”

4  bLet them be cput to shame and dishonor

who seek after my life!

Let them be dturned back and disappointed

who devise evil against me!

5  Let them be like echaff before the wind,

with the angel of the Lord driving them away!

6  Let their way be dark and fslippery,

with the angel of the Lord pursuing them!

7  For gwithout cause hthey hid their net for me;

without cause they dug ia pit for my life.2

8  Let jdestruction come upon him kwhen 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 will rejoice in the Lord,

lexulting in his salvation.

10  All my mbones shall say,

“O Lord, nwho is like you,

delivering the poor

from him who is too strong for him,

the poor and needy from him who robs him?”

11  oMalicious3 witnesses rise up;

they ask me of things that I do not know.

12  pThey repay me evil for good;

my soul is bereft.4

13  But I, qwhen they were sick—

I rwore sackcloth;

I safflicted myself with fasting;

I prayed twith head bowed5 on my chest.

14  I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;

as one who laments his mother,

I ubowed down in mourning.