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¹ A PSALM OF ASAPH. Surely God [is] good to Israel, to the clean of heart. And I—as a little thing, || My feet have been turned aside,² As nothing, my steps have slipped, || For I have been envious of the boastful,³ I see the peace of the wicked, || That there are no bands at their death,⁴ And their might [is] firm.⁵ They are not in the misery of mortals, || And they are not plagued with common men.⁶ Therefore pride has encircled them, || Violence covers them as a dress.⁷ Their eye has come out from fat. The imaginations of the heart transgressed;⁸ They do corruptly, || And they speak in the wickedness of oppression, || They speak from on high.⁹ They have set their mouth in the heavens, || And their tongue walks in the earth.¹⁰ Therefore His people return here, || And waters of fullness are wrung out to them.¹¹ And they have said, "How has God known? And is there knowledge in the Most High?"¹² Behold, these [are] the wicked and easy ones of the age, || They have increased strength.¹³ Only—a vain thing! I have purified my heart, || And I wash my hands in innocence,¹⁴ And I am plagued all the day, || And my reproof—every morning.

¹⁵ If I have said, "I recount thus," || Behold, I have deceived a generation of Your sons.¹⁶ And I think to know this, || It [is] perverseness in my eyes,¹⁷ Until I come into the sanctuaries of God, || I attend to their latter end.¹⁸ Surely You set them in slippery places, || You have caused them to fall to desolations.¹⁹ How they have become a desolation as in a moment, || They have been ended—consumed from terrors.²⁰ As a dream from awakening, O Lord, || In awaking, You despise their image.

²¹ For my heart shows itself violent, || And my reins prick themselves,²² And I am brutish, and do not know. I have been a beast with You.²³ And I [am] continually with You, || You have laid hold on my right hand.²⁴ You lead me with Your counsel, || And after, receive me [to] glory.²⁵ Whom do I have in the heavens? And none have I desired in earth [besides] You.²⁶ My flesh and my heart have been consumed, || God [is] the rock of my heart and my portion for all time.²⁷ For behold, those far from You perish, || You have cut off everyone, || Who is going whoring from You.²⁸ And [the] nearness of God to me [is] good, || I have placed my refuge in Lord YHWH, || To recount all Your works!