351 O Lord, be on my side against those who are judging me; be at war with those who make war against me. 2 Be a breastplate to me, and give me your help. 3 Take up your spear and keep back my attackers; say to my soul, I am your salvation. 4 Let them be overcome and put to shame who make attempts to take my soul; let those who would do me damage be turned back and made foolish. 5 Let them be like dust from the grain before the wind; let the angel of the Lord send them in flight. 6 Let their way be dark and full of danger; let them be troubled by the angel of the Lord. 7 For without cause they have put a net ready for me secretly, in which to take my soul. 8 Let destruction come on them without their knowledge; let them be taken themselves in their secret nets, falling into the same destruction. 9 And my soul will have joy in the Lord; it will be glad in his salvation. 10 All my bones will say, Lord, who is like you? The saviour of the poor man from the hands of the strong, of him who is poor and in need from him who takes his goods.
11 False witnesses got up: they put questions to me about crimes of which I had no knowledge. 12 They gave me back evil for good, troubling my soul. 13 But as for me, when they were ill I put on the clothing of sorrow: I went without food and was sad, and my prayer came back again to my heart. 14 My behaviour was as if it had been my friend or my brother: I was bent low in grief like one whose mother is dead. 15 But they took pleasure in my trouble, and came together, yes, low persons came together against me without my knowledge; they never came to an end of wounding me. 16 Like men of deceit they put me to shame; the voice of their wrath was loud against me.
17 Lord, how long will you be looking on? take my soul from their destruction, my life from the lions. 18 I will give you praise in the great meeting; I will give you honour among a strong people. 19 Do not let my haters be glad over me falsely; let not those who are against me without cause make sport of me. 20 For they do not say words of peace; in their deceit they are designing evil things against the quiet ones in the land. 21 Their mouths were open wide against me, and they said, Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it. 22 You have seen this, O Lord; be not unmoved: O Lord, be not far from me. 23 Be awake, O Lord, be moved to take up my cause, my God and my Lord. 24 Be my judge, O Lord my God, in your righteousness; do not let them be glad over me. 25 Let them not say in their hearts, So we will have it: let them not say, We have put an end to him. 26 Let all those who take pleasure in my troubles be shamed and come to nothing: let those who are lifted up against me be covered with shame and have no honour. 27 Let those who are on my side give cries of joy; let them ever say, The Lord be praised, for he has pleasure in the peace of his servant. 28 And my tongue will be talking of your righteousness and of your praise all the day.
361 The sin of the evil-doer says in his heart, There is no fear of the Lord before his eyes. 2 For he takes comfort in the thought that his sin will not be uncovered and hated. 3 In the words of his mouth are evil and deceit; he has given up being wise and doing good. 4 He gives thought to evil on his bed; he takes a way which is not good; he is not a hater of evil.
5 Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and your strong purpose is as high as the clouds. 6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judging is like the great deep; O Lord, you give life to man and beast. 7 How good is your loving mercy, O God! the children of men take cover under the shade of your wings. 8 The delights of your house will be showered on them; you will give them drink from the river of your pleasures. 9 For with you is the fountain of life: in your light we will see light. 10 O let there be no end to your loving mercy to those who have knowledge of you, or of your righteousness to the upright in heart. 11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, or the hand of the evil-doers put me out of my place. 12 There the workers of evil have come down: they have been made low, and will not be lifted up.
251 So Festus, having come into that part of the country which was under his rule, after three days went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. 2 And the chief priests and the chief men of the Jews made statements against Paul, 3 Requesting Festus to give effect to their design against him, and send him to Jerusalem, when they would be waiting to put him to death on the way. 4 But Festus, in answer, said that Paul was being kept in prison at Caesarea, and that in a short time he himself was going there. 5 So, he said, let those who have authority among you go with me, and if there is any wrong in the man, let them make a statement against him. 6 And when he had been with them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; and on the day after, he took his place on the judge's seat, and sent for Paul. 7 And when he came, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem came round him, and made all sorts of serious statements against him, which were not supported by the facts. 8 Then Paul, in his answer to them, said, I have done no wrong against the law of the Jews, or against the Temple, or against Caesar. 9 But Festus, desiring to get the approval of the Jews, said to Paul, Will you go up to Jerusalem, and be judged before me there in connection with these things? 10 And Paul said, I am before the seat of Caesar's authority where it is right for me to be judged: I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you are well able to see. 11 If, then, I am a wrongdoer and there is a cause of death in me, I am ready for death: if it is not as they say against me, no man may give me up to them. Let my cause come before Caesar. 12 Then Festus, having had a discussion with the Jews, made answer, You have said, Let my cause come before Caesar; to Caesar you will go.
13 Now when some days had gone by, King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea and went to see Festus. 14 And as they were there for some days, Festus gave them Paul's story, saying, There is a certain man here who was put in prison by Felix: 15 Against whom the chief priests and the rulers of the Jews made a statement when I was at Jerusalem, requesting me to give a decision against him. 16 To whom I gave answer that it is not the Roman way to give a man up, till he has been face to face with those who are attacking him, and has had a chance to give an answer to the statements made against him. 17 So, when they had come together here, straight away, on the day after, I took my place on the judge's seat and sent for the man. 18 But when they got up they said nothing about such crimes as I had in mind: 19 But had certain questions against him in connection with their religion, and about one Jesus, now dead, who, Paul said, was living. 20 And as I had not enough knowledge for the discussion of these things, I made the suggestion to him to go to Jerusalem and be judged there. 21 But when Paul made a request that he might be judged by Caesar, I gave orders for him to be kept till I might send him to Caesar. 22 And Agrippa said to Festus, I have a desire to give the man a hearing myself. Tomorrow, he said, you may give him a hearing. 23 So on the day after, when Agrippa and Bernice in great glory had come into the public place of hearing, with the chief of the army and the chief men of the town, at the order of Festus, Paul was sent for. 24 And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all those who are present here with us, you see this man, about whom all the Jews have made protests to me, at Jerusalem and in this place, saying that it is not right for him to be living any longer. 25 But, in my opinion, there is no cause of death in him, and as he himself has made a request to be judged by Caesar, I have said that I would send him. 26 But I have no certain account of him to send to Caesar. So I have sent for him to come before you, and specially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the business has been gone into, I may have something to put in writing. 27 For it seems to me against reason to send a prisoner without making clear what there is against him.
