Psalms

Chapter 79

  1. 2

    Give audience, thou that art the guide of Israel, that leadest Joseph with a shepherd’s care. Thou who art enthroned above the Cherubim,

  2. 3

    reveal thyself to Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasses; exert thy sovereign strength, and come to our aid.

  3. 4

    O God, restore us to our own; smile upon us, and we shall find deliverance.

  4. 5

    Lord God of hosts, wilt thou always turn away in anger from thy servants’ prayer;

  5. 6

    daily wilt thou allot us, for food, for drink, only the full measure of our tears?

  6. 7

    Thou hast made us a coveted prize to our neighbours, enemies mock at our ill fortune!

  7. 8

    O God of hosts, restore us to our own; smile upon us, and we shall find deliverance.

  8. 9

    Long ago, thou didst bring a vine out of Egypt, rooting out the heathen to plant it here;

  9. 10

    thou didst prepare the way for its spreading, and it took root where thou hadst planted it, filled the whole land.

  10. 11

    How it overshadowed the hills, how the cedars, divinely tall, were overtopped by its branches!

  11. 12

    It spread out its tendrils to the sea, its shoots as far as the great river.

  12. 13

    Why is it that in these days thou hast levelled its wall, for every passer-by to rob it of its fruit?

  13. 14

    See how the wild boar ravages it, how it gives pasture to every beast that roams!

  14. 15

    God of hosts, relent, look down from heaven, look to this vine, that needs thy care.

  15. 16

    Revive the stock which thy own hand has planted, branches that by thee throve, and throve for thee.

  16. 17

    Death be in thy frown for the men that have cut it down and burned it.

  17. 18

    Thy chosen friends, a race1 by thee thriving, and thriving for thee, O let thy hand protect them still!

  18. 19

    Henceforth we will never forsake thee; grant us life, and we will live only to invoke thy name.

  19. 20

    Lord God of hosts, restore us to our own; smile upon us, and we shall find deliverance.