[1] God, don’t close your ears to my prayer!
[2] Wicked people are telling lies about me. They are saying things that are not true.
[3] People are saying hateful things about me. People are attacking me for no reason.
[4] I loved them, but they hate me. So now, I am praying to you, God.
[5] I did good things to those people. but they are doing bad things to me. I loved them, but they hated me.
[6] Punish my enemy for the bad things he did. Find a person to prove he is wrong.
[7] Let the judge decide my enemy did wrong and that he is guilty. Let everything my enemy says only make things worse for him.
[8] Let my enemy die soon. Let another person have his job.
[9] Make my enemy’s children orphans and his wife a widow.
[10] Let them lose their home and become beggars.
[11] Let the people my enemy owes money to take everything he owns. Let strangers take everything he worked for.
[12] I hope no person is kind to my enemy. I hope no person shows mercy to his children.
[13] Destroy my enemy completely. Let the next generation remove his name from everything.
[14] I hope the Lord is reminded of the sins of my enemy’s father. And I hope his mother’s sins are never erased.
[15] I hope the Lord remembers those sins forever. And I hope he forces people to forget my enemy completely.
[16] Why? Because that evil man never did anything good. He never loved anyone He made life hard for poor, helpless people.
[17] That evil man loved to ask for bad things to happen to other people. So let those bad things happen to him. That evil man never asked for good things to happen to people. So don’t let good things happen to him.
[18] Let curses be his clothes. Let curses be the water he drinks. Let curses be the oil on his body.
[19] Let curses be the clothes they wrap around that evil man. And let curses be the belt around his waist.
[20] I hope the Lord does all those things to my enemy. I hope the Lord does those things to the people who are trying to kill me.
[21] Lord, you are my Master. So treat me in a way that brings honor to your name. You have such great love, so save me.
[22] I am only a poor, helpless man. I am truly sad, my heart is broken.
[23] I feel like my life is over, like long shadows at the end of a day. I feel like a bug someone brushed away.
[24] My knees are weak because I am hungry. I am losing weight and becoming thin.
[25] Bad people insult me. They look at me and shake their heads.
[26] Lord my God, help me! Show your true love and save me!
[27] Then those people will know that you helped me. Then they will know that it was your power that helped me.
[28] Those bad people curse me, but you can bless me, Lord. They attacked me, so defeat them. Then I, your servant, will be happy.
[29] Embarrass my enemies! Let them wear their shame like a coat.
[30] I thank the Lord. I praise him in front of many people.
[31] Why? Because the Lord stands by helpless people. God saves them from other people who try to condemn them to death.