Font Size
Psalm 10
Good News Translation
Psalm 10
Good News Translation
A Prayer for Justice
10 Why are you so far away, O Lord?
Why do you hide yourself when we are in trouble?
2 The wicked are proud and persecute the poor;
catch them in the traps they have made.
3 The wicked are proud of their evil desires;
the greedy curse and reject the Lord.
4 The wicked do not care about the Lord;
in their pride they think that God doesn't matter.
5 The wicked succeed in everything.
They cannot understand God's judgments;
they sneer at their enemies.
6 They say to themselves, “We will never fail;
we will never be in trouble.”
7 (A)Their speech is filled with curses, lies, and threats;
they are quick to speak hateful, evil words.
8 They hide themselves in the villages,
waiting to murder innocent people.
They spy on their helpless victims;
9 they wait in their hiding place like lions.
They lie in wait for the poor;
they catch them in their traps and drag them away.
10 The helpless victims lie crushed;
brute strength has defeated them.
11 The wicked say to themselves, “God doesn't care!
He has closed his eyes and will never see me!”
12 O Lord, punish those wicked people!
Remember those who are suffering!
13 How can the wicked despise God
and say to themselves, “He will not punish me”?
14 But you do see; you take notice of trouble and suffering
and are always ready to help.
The helpless commit themselves to you;
you have always helped the needy.
15 Break the power of wicked and evil people;
punish them for the wrong they have done
until they do it no more.
16 The Lord is king forever and ever.
Those who worship other gods
will vanish from his land.
17 You will listen, O Lord, to the prayers of the lowly;
you will give them courage.
18 You will hear the cries of the oppressed and the orphans;
you will judge in their favor,
so that mortal men may cause terror no more.
Psalm 10
New International Version
Psalm 10
New International Version
Psalm 10[a]
2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,(C)
who are caught in the schemes he devises.
3 He boasts(D) about the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.(E)
4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.(F)
5 His ways are always prosperous;
your laws are rejected by[b] him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
6 He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”
He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”(G)
7 His mouth is full(H) of lies and threats;(I)
trouble and evil are under his tongue.(J)
8 He lies in wait(K) near the villages;
from ambush he murders the innocent.(L)
His eyes watch in secret for his victims;
9 like a lion in cover he lies in wait.
He lies in wait to catch the helpless;(M)
he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.(N)
10 His victims are crushed,(O) they collapse;
they fall under his strength.
11 He says to himself, “God will never notice;(P)
he covers his face and never sees.”(Q)
12 Arise,(R) Lord! Lift up your hand,(S) O God.
Do not forget the helpless.(T)
13 Why does the wicked man revile God?(U)
Why does he say to himself,
“He won’t call me to account”?(V)
14 But you, God, see the trouble(W) of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;(X)
you are the helper(Y) of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked man;(Z)
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out.
16 The Lord is King for ever and ever;(AA)
the nations(AB) will perish from his land.
17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted;(AC)
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,(AD)
18 defending the fatherless(AE) and the oppressed,(AF)
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.
Footnotes
- Psalm 10:1 Psalms 9 and 10 may originally have been a single acrostic poem in which alternating lines began with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Septuagint they constitute one psalm.
- Psalm 10:5 See Septuagint; Hebrew / they are haughty, and your laws are far from
Psalm 10
King James Version
Psalm 10
King James Version
10 Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.
4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
5 His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
6 He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.
7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.
9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.
10 He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.
13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
14 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
16 The Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.
17 Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.
Good News Translation (GNT) 
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.