The Qumran Community · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[...] [...]
[...] [...]
[...] [I thank you,] [O Lord,] [for] [you have set right] [in] [my heart] all deeds of iniquity, and [you will cleanse me]
[...] [and] you have set [keepers of] [truth] [against] [my iniquity, and] [reprovers of] righteous truth against all [my violence] [...]
[...] to heal my wound(s), [comforters of] [strength] [...] [...] [and] proclaimers of joy for the mourning of [my grief]
[One who brings good tidings of] peace for all the disasters of [my report] [...] strong ones for the melting of my heart, and strengtheners of [spirit]
before [the affliction] [...] and you have given an answer of tongue to my [uncircumcised] lips, and you sustain my soul with a strengthening of the loins
and a bracing of strength [...] and you have set my steps within the border of wickedness [...] and I have become a snare to transgressors, and a healing to all
who turn from transgression, prudence to the simple, and a steadfast inclination to all the hasty of heart [...] and you have made me a reproach
and a mockery to traitors, a council of truth and understanding to those upright of way [...] and I have become, on account of the iniquity of the wicked,
slander on the lips of the ruthless; scoffers gnash their teeth [...] and I have become a mocking song to transgressors [...]
and against me the assembly of the wicked rages [...] and they roar like the surging waves of the seas in the raging of their waves [...] mire
and mud they cast up [...] and you have made me a banner for the chosen ones of righteousness, and an interpreter of knowledge in the wondrous mysteries, to test
[the men of] truth, and to try the lovers of discipline [...] and I have become a man of strife to the interpreters of error, and a master of
[contention] to all the seers of right things [...] and I have become a spirit of zeal against all the seekers of [smooth things]
[and] [all] the men of deceit roar against me like the sound of the roar of many waters [...] and the devices of Belial, [all]
[their schemes] [...] and they would turn to a pit the life of a man whom you established by my mouth, and you teach him understanding
you have placed in his heart, to open a fountain of knowledge to all who understand [...] and they would exchange them for an uncircumcised lip
and another tongue for a people without understanding, to be confounded in their straying [...]
I thank you, O Lord, for you have bound up my soul in the bundle of the living
and you have hedged me about, shielding me on every side against the traps of the pit [...] [for] ruthless ones sought my soul as I held fast to
your covenant [...] and they are a council of falsehood, and a congregation of Belial [...] they did not know that my standing is from you [...]
and by your mercies you save my soul, for from you are my steps [...] and they, because of you, stirred up strife
against my soul, because you have glorified yourself through the judgment of the wicked, and shown your might through me against the sons of
man, for by your mercy is my standing [...] and I said, mighty men have encamped against me, they have surrounded [me] with all
their weapons of war [...] and arrows fly without remedy, and the flame of the spear like a fire consuming trees, consuming trees [...]
and like the roar of many waters is the tumult of their voice, a bursting torrent to destroy many [...] they burst forth into channels
of viper's poison and falsehood, when their waves rise up [...] and I, when my heart melts like water, you strengthen my soul in your covenant [...]
and they spread a net for me — their own feet are caught in it [...] and snares they hid for my soul, they fell into them [...] and my feet stood on level ground [...]
away from their assembly I will bless your name [...]
I thank you, O Lord, for your eye [is upon me] in the bereavement of my soul, and you deliver me from the envy of the interpreters of lies
and from the congregation of the seekers of smooth things [...] you have redeemed the soul of the poor one, whose blood they schemed to finish off
by pouring it out for your service [...] but they did [not] know that from you are my steps, and they made me an object of scorn
and a reproach in the mouth of all the seekers of deceit [...] but you, my God, have helped the soul of the poor and needy
from the hand of one stronger than he [...] and you redeem my soul from the hand of the mighty [...] and by their blasphemies you did not let me be broken
so as to abandon your service out of fear of the calamities of the wicked, or to exchange, for the ranting of a fool, the steadfast inclination which
you have given [...] the waters of statutes, and by the testimonies [you have established me] to hold fast
[flesh] [...] corruption to all the offspring of the nation
[...] [tongue] according to your teachings, and in [judgment] [...]