2. Take your shield and armourand come to my rescue.
3. Lift up your spear and your axeagainst those who pursue me.Promise that you will save me.
4. May those who try to kill mebe defeated and disgraced!May those who plot against mebe turned back and confused!
5. May they be like straw blown by the windas the angel of the Lord pursues them!
6. May their path be dark and slipperywhile the angel of the Lord strikes them down!
7. Without any reason they laid a trap for meand dug a deep hole to catch me.
8. But destruction will catch them before they know it;they will be caught in their own trapand fall to their destruction!
9. Then I will be glad because of the Lord;I will be happy because he saved me.
10. With all my heart I will say to the Lord,“There is no one like you.You protect the weak from the strong,the poor from the oppressor.”
11. Evil people testify against meand accuse me of crimes I know nothing about.
12. They pay me back evil for good,and I sink in despair.
13. But when they were sick, I dressed in mourning;I deprived myself of food;I prayed with my head bowed low,
14. as I would pray for a friend or a brother.I went about bent over in mourning,as one who mourns for his mother.