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A Lament After a Defeat and a Prayer for Restoration

For the music director, according to Shushan Eduth.[a]

A miktam of David. To teach.

When he fought Mesopotamia and Aram Zobah, and Joab returned and struck Edom in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand persons.[b]

60 O God, you have rejected us. You have broken us.
You have been angry. Restore us!
You have made the land quake. You have split it open.
Heal its fissures, because it totters.
You have shown your people hard things;
You have given us wine that staggers.
You have rallied those who fear you round a banner
out of bowshot,[c] Selah
so that your beloved ones may be rescued.
Save by your right hand and answer us.
God has spoken in his holiness,
“I will rejoice;
I will divide up Shechem,
and portion out the valley of Succoth.
Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine,
and Ephraim is the helmet for[d] my head;
Judah is my scepter.[e]
Moab is my washing pot;
over Edom, I will cast my sandal.
On account of me, O Philistia, raise a shout.”
Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
10 Have not you yourself rejected us, O God,
and not gone out with our armies, O God?
11 Give us help against the adversary,
for the help of humankind is futile.
12 Through God we will do valiantly,[f]
and it is he who will tread down our enemies.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 60:1 Perhaps “The Lily of Testimony”
  2. Psalm 60:1 The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first two verses of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by two
  3. Psalm 60:4 Literally “from the presence of the bow”
  4. Psalm 60:7 Literally “protection of”
  5. Psalm 60:7 Or “commander’s rod”
  6. Psalm 60:12 Literally “might”

60 O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again.

Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh.

Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment.

Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.

That thy beloved may be delivered; save with thy right hand, and hear me.

God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.

Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;

Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me.

Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?

10 Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? and thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies?

11 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.

12 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.