¹ Why standest thou afar off, O LORD?
why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
² The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor [cringing]:
let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
³ For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire,
and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.
⁴ The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God:
God is not in all his thoughts.
⁵ His ways are always [at all times] grievous;
thy judgments are far above out of his sight:
as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
⁶ He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved:
for I shall never [to generation and generation not] be in adversity.
⁷ His mouth is full of and deceit and fraud:
under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
⁸ He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages:
in the secret places doth he murder the innocent:
his eyes are privily set against the poor [darkened].
⁹ He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den:
he lieth in wait to catch the poor [cringing]:
he doth catch poor [cringing], when he draweth him into his net.
¹⁰ He croucheth,
and humbleth himself,
that the poor [darkened] may fall by his strong ones.
¹¹ He hath said in his heart,
God hath forgotten:
he hideth his face;
he will never see it.

¹² Arise, O LORD;
O God, lift up thine hand:
forget not the humble.
¹³ Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God?
he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
¹⁴ Thou hast seen it;
for thou beholdest mischief and spite,
to requite it with thy hand: the poor [darkened] committeth himself unto thee;
thou art the helper of the fatherless.
¹⁵ Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man:
seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
¹⁶ The LORD is King for ever and ever:
the heathen are perished out of his land.
¹⁷ LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble [lowly]:
thou wilt prepare their heart,
thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
¹⁸ To judge the fatherless and the oppressed,
that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

* NOTE: On Opening and Closing Comments in the Psalms.
[Some commentators take the Psalm in Habakkuk 3 to be a standard model for the Psalms.
Habakkuk's Psalm begins with the name of the composer (Habakkuk) and a musical notation ("upon Shigionoth").
It closes with a dedication or a "send to" notice ("To the chief singer on my stringed instruments").
I have arranged similar material, where it is found in the Psalter, in accord with the model in Habakkuk.]