Font Size
Psalm 59:10-12
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 59:10-12
New Catholic Bible
10 [a]O my strength, I will keep watch for you,
for you, O God, are my fortress,
11 O God of mercy.
May God go before me
and allow me to have my way with my enemies.
12 Do not put them to death,
lest my people forget.[b]
Scatter them in your power
and bring them to their knees,
O Lord, our shield.[c]
Footnotes
- Psalm 59:10 The psalmist asks God to put his foes to death, so that his people may not be seduced by them and so that the people will remember this particular saving act longer than they have remembered others (see Pss 78:11; 106:13).
- Psalm 59:12 Another translation possible is: “O God, put them to death, / so that they may not seduce my people.”
- Psalm 59:12 O Lord, our shield: just as the king was regarded as the people’s shield in ancient Israel (see Ps 84:10), so the Lord was called the Shield of his people (see Pss 7:11; 84:12; 89:19; 91:4; 115:9-11; Deut 33:29; Prov 30:5). Accordingly, the psalmist invokes this attribute of the Lord at this point.
