Psalms

¹ God! Barbarians have broken into your home, violated your holy temple, left Jerusalem a pile of rubble!

² as carrion food for birds of prey, Threw the bones of your holy people out to the wild animals to gnaw on.

³ like buckets of water. All around Jerusalem, their bodies were left to rot, unburied.

⁴ graffiti scrawled on the city walls.

⁵ Do you have it in for us for good? Will your smoldering rage never cool down?

⁶ with the pagans who care nothing about you, or your rival kingdoms who ignore you.

⁷ who wrecked and looted the place where he lived.

⁸ Hurry up and help us; we're at the end of our rope.

⁹ Your reputation is on the line. Pull us out of this mess, forgive us our sins— do what you're famous for doing!

¹⁰ "Where's your God? Is he out to lunch?" Go public and show the godless world that they can't kill your servants and get by with it.

¹¹ pardon those on death row from their doom—you can do it!

¹² let their God-taunts boomerang and knock them flat.

¹³ will thank you over and over and over. We'll tell everyone we meet how wonderful you are, how praiseworthy you are!