Psalms 74
1 A maskil of Asaph. Why, O God, have you spurned us forever? Why smokes your wrath against the sheep of your pasture?
An instruction: of Asaph. Why, O God, hast thou cast off for ever? [why] doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember the community you purchased of old to become by redemption the tribe of your heritage, Zion, the mountain you made your home.
Remember thine assembly, which thou hast purchased of old, which thou hast redeemed [to be] the portion of thine inheritance, this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Rouse yourself, visit its ruins complete. In the temple the foe has made havoc of all things.
Lift up thy steps unto the perpetual desolations: everything in the sanctuary hath the enemy destroyed.
4 Like lions your enemies roared through your house, replacing our symbols by signs of their own,
Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy place of assembly; they set up their signs [for] signs.
5 hacking, like woodsmen who lift axes on thickets of trees,
[A man] was known as he could lift up axes in the thicket of trees;
6 smashing with hatchets and hammers all of its carved work together.
And now they break down its carved work altogether, with hatchets and hammers.
7 They have set your temple on fire, to the very ground they have outraged the place where lives your name.
They have set on fire thy sanctuary, they have profaned the habitation of thy name to the ground.
8 They have said in their heart, “Let us utterly crush them.” They have burned all the houses of God in the land.
They said in their heart, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all God's places of assembly in the land.
9 No symbol of ours do we see any more: no prophet is there any more, none is with us who knows how long.
We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to insult? Shall the enemy spurn your name forever?
How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy contemn thy name for ever?
11 Why, O Lord, do you hold back your hand, why keep your right hand in the folds of your robe?
Why withdrawest thou thy hand, and thy right hand? [pluck it] out of thy bosom: consume [them].
12 Yet God is our king from the ancient days, in the midst of the earth working deeds of salvation.
But God is my king of old, accomplishing deliverances in the midst of the earth.
13 It was you who did cleave the sea by your might, and shatter the heads of the ocean monsters.
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the monsters on the waters:
14 It was you who did crush many-headed Leviathan, and give him as food to the beasts of the wilderness.
Thou didst break in pieces the heads of leviathan, thou gavest him to be meat to those that people the desert.
15 It was you who did cleave the fountains and torrents; it was you who did dry the perennial streams.
Thou didst cleave fountain and torrent, thou driedst up ever-flowing rivers.
16 Yours is the day; yours, too, is the night, it was you who did establish the sun and the star.
The day is thine, the night also is thine; thou hast prepared the moon and the sun:
17 It was you who did fix all the borders of earth: summer and winter it’s you who have made them.
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; summer and winter — thou didst form them.
18 Yet, for all this, the foe has insulted you, Lord, and a nation of fools has reviled your name.
Remember this, that an enemy hath reproached Jehovah, and a foolish people have contemned thy name.
19 Do not give your dove to the beasts, do not forget your afflicted forever.
Give not up the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast; forget not the troop of thine afflicted for ever.
20 Look to the sleek ones – how full they are: the dark places of earth are the dwellings of violence.
Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the dwellings of violence.
21 O let not the downtrodden turn back ashamed: let the poor and the needy sing praise to your name.
Oh let not the oppressed one return ashamed; let the afflicted and needy praise thy name.
22 Arise, God, and defend your cause: remember how fools all the day insult you.
Rise up, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day;
23 Do not forget the uproar of your enemies, the din of your foes that ascends evermore.
Forget not the voice of thine adversaries: the tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth continually.
