A Melody of Asaph.

¹ El, Elohim, Yahweh, hath spoken, and culled the earth, From the rising of the sun, unto the going in thereof:

² Out of Zion the perfection of beauty, God, hath shone forth.

³ Let our God come, and let him not keep silence! A fire—before him, shall devour, And, around him, hath it become exceeding tempestuous:

⁴ He calleth, Unto the heavens above, And unto the earth, That he may judge his people.

⁵ Gather yourselves unto me—ye my men of lovingkindness, Who have solemnised my covenant over sacrifice.

⁶ Now have the heavens declared his righteousness, Because, God, is, about to judge. [Selah.]

⁷ Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will adjure thee, God, thine own God, I am:—

⁸ Not, for thy sacrifices, will I reprove thee, Nor for thine ascending-offerings, before me continually:

⁹ I will not take out of thy house—a bullock, Nor out of thy folds—he-goats;

¹⁰ For, mine, is every wild-beast of the forest, The cattle on the mountains, in their thousands;

¹¹ I know every bird of the mountains, And, the moving things of the plain, are with me:

¹² If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, For, mine, is the world, and the fulness thereof.

¹³ Will I eat the flesh of mighty oxen? Or, the blood of he-goats, will I drink?

¹⁴ Sacrifice to God a thankoffering, And pay to the Most High thy vows;

¹⁵ Call upon me, then, in the day of distress, I will deliver thee, that thou mayest glorify me.

¹⁶ But, to the lawless one, God saith, What hast, thou, to do, to recount my statutes? Or that thou hast taken up my covenant upon thy mouth?

¹⁷ Seeing that, thou, hast hated correction, And hast cast my words behind thee;

¹⁸ If thou sawest a thief, then didst thou run with him,—And, with adulterers, hath been thy chosen life;

¹⁹ Thy mouth, hast thou thrust into wickedness, And, thy tongue, kept weaving deceit;

²⁰ Thou wouldst sit down—Against thine own brother, wouldst thou speak, Against thine own mother’s son, wouldst thou expose a fault:—

²¹ These things, hast thou done, and I have kept silence, Thou thoughtest that I should really be like thyself, I will convict thee, yea I will set [thine offences] in order before thine eyes.

²² Understand this, I pray you, ye forgetters of GOD, Lest I tear in pieces, and there be none to deliver:—

²³ He that sacrificeth a thankoffering, will glorify me,—And will prepare a way by which I may show him the salvation of God.