Kathisma VI

O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath, neither chasten me in Thine anger.

For Thy weapons are fixed in me, and Thou hast pressed Thy hand heavily upon me.

For there is no health in my flesh because of Thine anger; there is no peace to my bones because of my sins.

For my transgressions have gone over my head: they have pressed heavily upon me like a weighty burden.

My bruises have become noisome and corrupt, because of my foolishness.

I have been wretched and bowed down continually: I went with a mourning countenance all the day.

For my soul is filled with mockings; and there is no health in my flesh.

I have been afflicted and brought down exceedingly: I have roared for the groaning of my heart.

But all my desire is before Thee; and my groaning is not hidden from Thee.

My heart is troubled, my strength hath failed me; and the light of mine eyes is not with me.

My friends and my neighbors drew near before me, and stood still; and my nearest of kin stood afar off.

While they pressed hard upon me that sought my soul: and they that sought my hurt spoke vanities, and devised deceits all the day.

But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and was as a dumb man not opening his mouth.

And I was as a man that heareth not, and who hath no reproofs in his mouth.

For I hoped in Thee, O Lord: Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.

For I said, Lest mine enemies rejoice against me: for when my feet were moved, they spoke boastingly against me.

For I am ready for plagues, and my grief is continually before me.

For I will declare mine iniquity, and be distressed for my sin.

But mine enemies live, and are mightier than I: and they that hate me unjustly are multiplied.

They that reward evil for good slandered me; because I followed righteousness.

Forsake me not, O Lord my God: depart not from me.

Draw near to my help, O Lord of my salvation.

I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I set a guard on my mouth, while the sinner stood in my presence.

I was dumb, and humbled myself, and kept silence from good words; and my grief was renewed.

My heart grew hot within me, and a fire would kindle in my meditation: I spoke with my tongue,

O Lord, make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, what it is; that I may know what I lack.

Behold, Thou hast made my days old; and my existence is as nothing before Thee: nay, every man living is altogether vanity. Pause.

Surely man walketh in a shadow; nay, he is disquieted in vain: he layeth up treasures, and knoweth not for whom he shall gather them.

And now what is my expectation? is it not the Lord? and my ground of hope is with Thee. Pause.

Deliver me from all my transgressions: Thou hast made me a reproach to the foolish.

I was dumb, and opened not my mouth; for Thou art He that made me.

Remove Thy scourges from me: I have fainted by reason of the strength of Thy hand.

Thou chastenest man with rebukes for iniquity, and Thou makest his life to consume away like a spider's web; nay, every man is disquieted in vain. Pause.

O Lord, listen to my prayer and my supplication: attend to my tears: be not silent, for I am a sojourner in the land, and a stranger, as all my fathers were.

Spare me, that I may be refreshed, before I depart, and be no more.

I waited patiently for the Lord; and He attended to me, and listened to my supplication.

And He brought me up out of a pit of misery, and from miry clay: and He set my feet on a rock, and ordered my goings aright.

And He put a new song into my mouth, even a hymn to our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall hope in the Lord.

Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord, and who hath not regarded vanities and false frenzies.

O Lord my God, Thou hast multiplied Thy wonderful works, and in Thy thoughts there is none who shall be likened to Thee: I declared and spoke of them: they exceeded number.

Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not; but a body hast Thou prepared me: whole burnt offering and sacrifice for sin Thou didst not require.

Then I said, Behold, I come: in the volume of the book it is written concerning me,

I desired to do Thy will, O my God, and Thy law in the midst of my heart.

I have preached righteousness in the great congregation; behold! I will not refrain my lips; O Lord, Thou knowest my righteousness.

I have not hid Thy truth within my heart, and I have declared Thy salvation; I have not hid Thy mercy and Thy truth from the great congregation.

But Thou, Lord, remove not Thy compassion far from me; Thy mercy and Thy truth have helped me continually.

For innumerable evils have encompassed me; my transgressions have taken hold of me, and I could not see; they are multiplied more than the hairs of my head; and my heart hath failed me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, draw near to help me.

Let those that seek my soul, to destroy it, be ashamed and confounded together; let those that wish me evil be turned backward and put to shame.

Let those that say to me, Aha, aha, quickly receive shame for their reward.

Let all those that seek Thee, O Lord, exult and rejoice in Thee; and let them that love Thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified.

But I am poor and needy; the Lord will take care of me; Thou art my helper, and my defender, O my God, delay not.

Blessed is the man who thinketh on the poor and needy: the Lord shall deliver him in an evil day.

May the Lord preserve him and keep him alive, and bless him on the earth, and not deliver him into the hands of his enemy.

May the Lord help him upon the bed of his pain; Thou hast made all his bed in his sickness.

I said, O Lord, have mercy upon me; heal my soul; for I have sinned against Thee.

Mine enemies have spoken evil against me, saying, When shall he die, and his name perish?

And if he came to see me, his heart spoke vainly; he gathered iniquity to himself; he went forth and spoke in like manner.

All mine enemies whispered against me; against me they devised my hurt.

They denounced a wicked word against me, saying, Now that he lieth, shall he not rise up again?

For even the man of my peace, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, lifted up his heel against me.

But Thou, O Lord, have compassion upon me, and raise me up, and I shall requite them.

By this I know that Thou hast delighted in me, because mine enemy shall not rejoice over me.

But Thou didst help me because of mine innocence, and hast established me before Thee for ever.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. So be it, so be it.

As the hart earnestly desireth the fountains of water, so my soul earnestly longeth for Thee, O God.

My soul hath thirsted for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been bread to me day and night, while they daily said to me, Where is thy God?

I remembered these things, and poured out my soul in me, for I will go to the place of Thy wondrous tabernacle, even to the house of God, with a voice of exultation and thanksgiving and of the sound of those who keep festival.

Therefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and therefore dost thou trouble me? hope in God; for I will give thanks to Him; He is the salvation of my countenance.

O my God, my soul hath been troubled within me: therefore will I remember Thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Ermonites, from the little hill.

Deep calleth to deep at the voice of Thy cataracts: all Thy billows and Thy waves have gone over me.

By day the Lord will command His mercy, and manifest it by night: with me is prayer to the God of my life.

I will say to God, Thou art my helper; why hast Thou forgotten me? therefore do I go sad of countenance, while the enemy oppresseth me?

While my bones were breaking, they that afflicted me reproached me; while they said to me daily, Where is thy God?

Therefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and therefore dost thou trouble me? hope in God; for I will give thanks to Him; He is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Judge me, O God, and plead my cause, against an ungodly nation: deliver me from the unjust and crafty man.

For Thou, O God, art my strength: therefore hast Thou cast me off? and why do I go sad of countenance, while the enemy oppresseth me?

Send forth Thy light and Thy truth: they have led me, and brought me to Thy holy mountain, and to Thy tabernacles.

And I will go in to the altar of God, to God who gladdeneth my youth: I will give thanks to Thee on the harp, O God, my God.

Therefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and therefore dost thou trouble me? Hope in God; for I will give thanks to Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, the work which Thou wroughtest in their days, in the days of old.

Thy hand utterly destroyed the heathen, and Thou didst plant them: Thou didst afflict the nations, and cast them out.

For they inherited not the land by their own sword, and their own arm did not deliver them; but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou wast well pleased in them.

Thou art indeed my King and my God, who commandest deliverances for Jacob.

In Thee will we push down our enemies, and in Thy name will we bring to nothing them that rise up against us.

For I will not trust in my bow, and my sword shall not save me.

For Thou hast saved us from them that afflicted us, and hast put to shame them that hated us.

In God will we make our boast all the day, and to Thy name will we give thanks for ever. Pause.

But now Thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and Thou wilt not go forth with our hosts.

Thou hast turned us back before our enemies; and they that hated us spoiled for themselves.

Thou hast made us as sheep for meat; and hast scattered us among the nations.

Thou hast sold Thy people without price, and there was no profit by their exchange.

Thou hast made us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

Thou hast made us a proverb among the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the nations.

All the day my shame is before me, and the confusion of my face hath covered me,

because of the voice of the slanderer and reviler; because of the enemy and avenger.

All these things are come upon us: but we have not forgotten Thee, neither have we dealt unrighteously in Thy covenant.

And our heart hath not gone back; but Thou hast turned aside our paths from Thy way.

For Thou hast laid us low in a place of affliction, and the shadow of death hath covered us.

If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have spread out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search these things out?

for He knoweth the secrets of the heart.

For, for Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for slaughter.

Awake, therefore sleepest Thou, O Lord? arise, and do not cast us off for ever.

Therefore turnest Thou Thy face away, and forgettest our poverty and our affliction?

For our soul hath been brought down to the dust; our belly hath cleaved to the earth.

Arise, O Lord, help us, and redeem us for Thy name's sake.

My heart hath uttered a good matter: I declare my works to the king: my tongue is the pen of a quick writer.

Thou art more beautiful than the sons of men: grace hath been shed forth on thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.

Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O Mighty One, in thy comeliness, and in thy beauty;

and bend thy bow, and prosper, and reign, because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall guide thee wonderfully.

Thy weapons are sharpened, Mighty One, (the nations shall fall under thee) they are in the heart of the king's enemies.

Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness.

Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness beyond Thy fellows.

Myrrh, and stacte, and cassia are exhaled from thy garments, and out of the ivory palaces,

with which kings' daughters have gladdened thee for thine honor: the queen stood by on thy right hand, clothed in vesture wrought with gold, and arrayed in various colors.

Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear; forget also thy people, and thy father's house.

Because the king hath desired thy beauty; for he is thy Lord.

And the daughter of Tyre shall adore him with gifts; the rich of the people of the land shall supplicate thy favor.

All her glory is that of the daughter of the king of Esebon, robed as she is in golden fringed garments,

in embroidered clothing: virgins shall be brought to the king after her: her fellows shall be brought to thee.

They shall be brought with gladness and exultation: they shall be led into the king's temple.

Instead of thy fathers children are born to thee: thou shalt make them princes over all the earth.

They shall make mention of thy name from generation to generation: therefore shall the nations give thanks to thee for ever, even for ever and ever.

God is our refuge and strength, a help in the afflictions that have come heavily upon us.

Therefore will we not fear when the earth is troubled, and the mountains are removed into the depths of the seas.

Their waters have roared and been troubled, the mountains have been troubled by His might. Pause.

The flowings of the river gladden the city of God: the Most High hath sanctified His tabernacle.

God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her with His countenance.

The nations were troubled, the kingdoms tottered: He uttered His voice, the earth shook.

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our helper. Pause.

Come, and behold the works of the Lord, what wonders He hath achieved on the earth.

Putting an end to wars as far as the ends of the earth; He will crush the bow, and break in pieces the weapon, and burn the bucklers with fire.

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our helper.