If only you would kill the wicked, O God! Get away from me, you violent men!

If someone wishes to contend with him, he cannot answer him one time in a thousand.

He does not expect to escape from darkness; he is marked for the sword;

He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots and he will depart by the breath of God’s mouth.

“But if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I refrain from speaking – how much of it goes away?

His memory perishes from the earth, he has no name in the land.

Far from where people live he sinks a shaft, in places travelers have long forgotten, far from other people he dangles and sways.

If my footsteps have strayed from the way, if my heart has gone after my eyes, or if anything has defiled my hands,

If there is an angel beside him, one mediator out of a thousand, to tell a person what constitutes his uprightness;

For I am aware of all his regulations, and I do not reject his rules.

We have not been unfaithful, nor have we disobeyed your commands.

All your garments are perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cassia. From the luxurious palaces comes the music of stringed instruments that makes you happy.

They come with red cloth from Egypt, Ethiopia voluntarily offers tribute to God.

Rise up, O God! Defend your honor! Remember how fools insult you all day long!

They did not remember what he had done, how he delivered them from the enemy,

My eyes grow weak because of oppression. I call out to you, O Lord, all day long; I spread out my hands in prayer to you.

Now give orders that these men cease their work and that this city not be rebuilt until such time as I so instruct.

I have now issued a decree that anyone in my kingdom from the people of Israel – even the priests and Levites – who wishes to do so may go up with you to Jerusalem.

So I say: “Don’t look at me! I am weeping bitterly. Don’t try to console me concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.”

“The rebellious children are as good as dead,” says the Lord, “those who make plans without consulting me, who form alliances without consulting my Spirit, and thereby compound their sin.