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ספר שלישי
BOOK III

73 A Psalm of Asaph.

Surely God is good to Israel,

Even to such as are pure in heart.

²But as for me, my feet were almost gone;

My steps had well nigh slipped.

³For I was envious at the arrogant,

When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴For there are no pangs at their death,

And their body is sound.

⁵In the trouble of man they are not;

Neither are they plagued like men.

⁶Therefore pride is as a chain about their neck;

Violence covereth them as a garment.

⁷Their eyes stand forth from fatness;

They are gone beyond the imaginations of their heart.

⁸They scoff, and in wickedness utter oppression;

They speak as if there were none on high.

⁹They have set their mouth against the heavens,

And their tongue walketh through the earth.

¹⁰Therefore His people return hither;

And waters of fullness are drained out by them.

¹¹And they say: 'How doth God know?

And is there knowledge in the Most High?'

¹²Behold, such are the wicked;

And they that are always at ease increase riches.

¹³Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart,

And washed my hands in innocency;

¹⁴For all the day have I been plagued,

And my chastisement came every morning.

 

¹⁵If I had said: 'I will speak thus',

Behold, I had been faithless to the generation of Thy children.

¹⁶And when I pondered how I might know this,

It was wearisome in mine eyes;

¹⁷Until I entered into the sanctuary of God,

And considered their end.

¹⁸Surely Thou settest them in slippery places;

Thou hurlest them down to utter ruin.

¹⁹How are they become a desolation in a moment!

They are wholly consumed by terrors.

²⁰As a dream when one awaketh,

So, O Lord, when Thou arousest Thyself, Thou wilt despise their semblance.

²¹For my heart was in a ferment,

And I was pricked in my reins.

²²But I was brutish, and ignorant;

I was as a beast before Thee.

 

²³Nevertheless I am continually with Thee;

Thou holdest my right hand.

²⁴Thou wilt guide me with Thy counsel,

And afterward receive me with glory.

²⁵Whom have I in heaven but Thee?

And beside Thee I desire none upon earth.

²⁶My flesh and my heart faileth;

But God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever.

²⁷For, lo, they that go far from Thee shall perish;

Thou dost destroy all them that go astray from Thee.

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