Psalm 22:1–31

¹My God, my God why have you forsaken me?

Why are you far from helping me, far from the words of my groaning?

²O my God, I call by day and you do not answer,

and by night but I have no rest.^b

³Yet you are holy,

enthroned on the praises of Israel.

⁴Our ancestors^c trusted you;

they trusted and you delivered them.

⁵They cried to you and were saved;

they trusted you and were not ashamed.

⁶But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by humankind and despised by people.

⁷All who see me mock me.

They open wide their lips;

they shake the head, saying:

⁸“He trusts Yahweh.^d Let him rescue him.

Let him deliver him because he delights in him.”

⁹Yet you took me from the belly;

you made me trust while on my mother’s breasts.

¹⁰On you I was cast from the womb.

From my mother’s belly you have been my God.

¹¹Do not be far from me

because trouble is near;

because there is no helper.

¹²Many bulls have encircled me;

mighty bulls of Bashan have surrounded me.

¹³They open their mouth against me

like a lion tearing and roaring.

¹⁴I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart is like wax;

it is melted within me.^e

¹⁵My strength is dry like a potsherd,

and my tongue is sticking to my jaws;

and you have placed me in the dust of death.

¹⁶Because dogs have surrounded me;

a gang of evildoers has encircled me.

Like the lion^f they are at my hands and my feet.

¹⁷I can count all my bones;

they gaze, they look at me.

¹⁸They divide my garments among them,

and for my clothing they cast lots.^g

¹⁹But you, O Yahweh, do not remain distant.

O my help, hasten to help me.

²⁰Rescue my life from the sword,

my only life from the power of the dogs.^h

²¹Save me from the mouth of the lion,

and from the horns of the wild oxen answer me.

²²I will tell your name to my brothers;

inside the assembly I will praise you.

²³You who revere Yahweh, praise him!

Glorify him, all you seed of Jacob,

and be in awe of him, all you seed of Israel,

²⁴because he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,

and has not hid his face from him;

but he listened to him when he cried for help.

²⁵From you is my praise.

In the great assembly,

I will pay my vows before those who revere him.

²⁶The afflicted will eat and will be satisfied.

Those who seek him will praise Yahweh.

May yourⁱ heart live forever.

²⁷All the ends of the earth

will remember and turn to Yahweh.

All the families of the nations

will worship before you.

²⁸Because the kingship belongs to Yahweh,

and he rules over the nations.

²⁹All the healthy ones^j of the earth will eat and worship.

Before him all of those descending into the dust will kneel,

even he who cannot keep his soul alive.

³⁰Descendants^k will serve him.

Regarding the Lord, it will be told to the next generation.

³¹They will come and tell his saving^l deeds

to a people yet to be born, that he has done it.