[1] With our own ears we have heard it, O God- our ancestors have told us about it, about the great things you did in their time, in the days of long ago: [2] how you yourself drove out the heathen and established your people in their land; how you punished the other nations and caused your own to prosper. [3] Your people did not conquer the land with their swords; they did not win it by their own power; it was by your power and your strength, by the assurance of your presence, which showed that you loved them. [4] You are my king and my God; you give victory to your people, [5] and by your power we defeat our enemies. [6] I do not trust in my bow or in my sword to save me; [7] but you have saved us from our enemies and defeated those who hate us. [8] We will always praise you and give thanks to you forever. [9] But now you have rejected us and let us be defeated; you no longer march out with our armies. [10] You made us run from our enemies, and they took for themselves what was ours. [11] You allowed us to be slaughtered like sheep; you scattered us in foreign countries. [12] You sold your own people for a small price as though they had little value. [13] Our neighbors see what you did to us, and they mock us and laugh at us. [14] You have made us a joke among the nations; they shake their heads at us in scorn. [15] I am always in disgrace; I am covered with shame [16] from hearing the sneers and insults of my enemies and those who hate me. [17] All this has happened to us, even though we have not forgotten you or broken the covenant you made with us. [18] We have not been disloyal to you; we have not disobeyed your commands. [19] Yet you left us helpless among wild animals; you abandoned us in deepest darkness. [20] If we had stopped worshiping our God and prayed to a foreign god, [21] you would surely have discovered it, because you know our secret thoughts. [22] But it is on your account that we are being killed all the time, that we are treated like sheep to be slaughtered. [23] Wake up, Lord! Why are you asleep? Rouse yourself Don't reject us forever! [24] Why are you hiding from us? Don't forget our suffering and trouble! [25] We fall crushed to the ground; we lie defeated in the dust. [26] Come to our aid! Because of your constant love save us!
