¹Why, O Lord, do you stand at a distance?

Why do you hide in times of affliction?

²The wicked man in his pride

Ardently pursues the needy,

But they will be caught by the very devices

Which they contrived.

³For the wicked man boasts in his personal pleasure-seeking,

And the defrauder blasphemes

– He blasphemes the Lord.

⁴The wicked, in his arrogant pride,

Does not seek divine guidance;

God does not come into any of his machinations.

⁵They pervert his way all the time.

Your judgments are high up, aloof from him;

He rails at all his adversaries.

⁶He says in his heart,

“I will not falter,

Because from generation to generation

I will not be in difficulty.”

Under his tongue are vice and iniquity.

⁸He lies in ambush in enclosed areas,

He kills the innocent in hiding places;

His eyes lie hidden,

Fixed on the downcast.

⁹He lies in ambush in the hiding place,

Like a lion in a thicket.

He lies in an ambush

Ready to pounce on the poor;

He pounces on the poor

As he draws him into his net.

¹⁰ And he crouches and keeps low,

And by his dominance

The strength of the downcast fails.

¹¹He says in his heart,

“God forgets,

He is hiding his face;

He will never look.”

¹²Arise, O Lord;

O God lift up your hand.

Do not forget the afflicted.

¹³Why does the wicked blaspheme God?

He says in his heart,

“He will not investigate it.”

¹⁴You have looked,

For you have seen sorrow and grief,

So as to requite it with your hand.

The downcast commits himself to you;

You are a helper to the orphan.

¹⁵Break the arm of the wicked and evil one;

Investigate his wickedness

Which he thinks you will not find.

¹⁶The Lord is king for the age and in perpetuity;

The nations are eliminated from his land.

¹⁷You have heard the desire of the meek, O Lord,

You will establish their heart;

Your ear has hearkened to it,

¹⁸So as to provide justice to the orphan and the afflicted.

The man from the earth

Will not cause terror any more.

Reference(s) in Chapter 10: v.7 ↔ Romans 3:14.