Read the Bible

¹ We have heard with our ears, O God,
Our fathers have told us,
What work thou didst in their days,
In the days of old.
² Thou didst drive out the nations with thy hand;
But them thou didst plant:
Thou didst afflict the peoples;
But them thou didst spread abroad.
³ For they gat not the land in possession by their own sword,
Neither did their own arm save them;
But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance,
Because thou wast favorable unto them.
⁴ Thou art my King, O God:
Command ^[a]deliverance for Jacob.
⁵ Through thee will we push down our adversaries:
Through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
⁶ For I will not trust in my bow,
Neither shall my sword save me.
⁷ But thou hast saved us from our adversaries,
And hast put them to shame that hate us.
⁸ In God have we made our boast all the day long,
And we will give thanks unto thy name for ever. Selah

⁹ But now thou hast cast us off, and brought us to dishonor,
And goest not forth with our hosts.
¹⁰ Thou makest us to turn back from the adversary;
And they that hate us take spoil for themselves.
¹¹ Thou hast made us like sheep appointed for food,
And hast scattered us among the nations.
¹² Thou sellest thy people for nought,
And hast not increased thy wealth by their price.
¹³ Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scoffing and a derision to them that are round about us.
¹⁴ Thou makest us a byword among the nations,
A shaking of the head among the peoples.
¹⁵ All the day long is my dishonor before me,
And the shame of my face hath covered me,
¹⁶ For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth,
By reason of the enemy and the avenger.
¹⁷ All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee,
Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.
¹⁸ Our heart is not turned back,
Neither have our steps declined from thy way,
^19 [b]That thou hast sore broken us in the place of jackals,
And covered us with the shadow of death.
²⁰ If we have forgotten the name of our God,
Or spread forth our hands to a strange god;
²¹ Will not God search this out?
For he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
²² Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
²³ Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?
Arise, cast us not off for ever.
²⁴ Wherefore hidest thou thy face,
And forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust:
Our body cleaveth unto the earth.
²⁶ Rise up for our help,
And redeem us for thy lovingkindness' sake.