Psalm 42 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Book Two

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

Psa 42:1To the choirmaster. A Maskil[fn] of the Sons of Korah.
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.

Psa 42:2

Psa 42:2My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?[fn]

Psa 42:3

Psa 42:3My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”

Psa 42:4

Psa 42:4These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.

Psa 42:5

Psa 42:5Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation[fn]

Psa 42:6

Psa 42:6and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.

Psa 42:7

Psa 42:7Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.

Psa 42:8

Psa 42:8By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

Psa 42:9

Psa 42:9I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”

Psa 42:10

Psa 42:10As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”

Psa 42:11

Psa 42:11Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(42:1)

Probably a musical or liturgical term

(42:2)

Revocalization yields and see the face of God

(42:5)

Hebrew the salvation of my face; also verse 11 and 43:5

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