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The Blue Letter Bible

Psalm 74 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause

A Maskil[fn] of Asaph.

 

O God, why do you cast us off forever?

Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old,

which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage!

Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.

Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;

the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

   

Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;

they set up their own signs for signs.

They were like those who swing axes

in a forest of trees.[fn]

And all its carved wood

they broke down with hatchets and hammers.

They set your sanctuary on fire;

they profaned the dwelling place of your name,

bringing it down to the ground.

They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”;

they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

   

We do not see our signs;

there is no longer any prophet,

and there is none among us who knows how long.

10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?

Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

11 Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?

Take it from the fold of your garment[fn] and destroy them!

   

12 Yet God my King is from of old,

working salvation in the midst of the earth.

13 You divided the sea by your might;

you broke the heads of the sea monsters[fn] on the waters.

14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;

you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

15 You split open springs and brooks;

you dried up ever-flowing streams.

16 Yours is the day, yours also the night;

you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.

17 You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;

you have made summer and winter.

   

18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs,

and a foolish people reviles your name.

19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;

do not forget the life of your poor forever.

   

20 Have regard for the covenant,

for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

21 Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;

let the poor and needy praise your name.

   

22 Arise, O God, defend your cause;

remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!

23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes,

the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!

 
ESV Footnotes
Probably a musical or liturgical term
The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
Hebrew from your bosom
Or the great sea creatures
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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Psalm Chapter 74 — Additional Translations: