1 | The understanding of Ethan the Ezrahite. |
2 | I will sing the mercies of the Lord in eternity. I will announce your truth with my mouth, from generation to generation. |
3 | For you have said: Mercy will be built in the heavens, unto eternity. Your truth will be prepared there. |
4 | I have set up a covenant with my elect. I have sworn to David my servant: |
5 | I will prepare your offspring, even in eternity. And I will build up your throne, from generation to generation. |
6 | The heavens will confess your miracles, Lord, and also your truth, in the Church of the saints. |
7 | For who among the clouds is equal to the Lord? Who among the sons of God is like God? |
8 | God is glorified by the counsel of the saints. He is great and terrible above all those who are around him. |
9 | O Lord, God of hosts, who is like you? You are powerful, Lord, and your truth is all around you. |
10 | You rule over the power of the sea, and you even mitigate the movement of its waves. |
11 | You have humbled the arrogant one, like one who has been wounded. You have scattered your enemies with the arm of your strength. |
12 | Yours are the heavens, and yours is the earth. You founded the whole world in all its fullness. |
13 | You created the north and the sea. Tabor and Hermon will exult in your name. |
14 | Your arm acts with power. Let your hand be strengthened, and let your right hand be exalted. |
15 | Justice and judgment are the preparation of your throne. Mercy and truth will precede your face. |
16 | Blessed is the people that knows jubilation. They will walk in the light of your countenance, O Lord, |
17 | and they will exult in your name all day long, and they will be exalted in your justice. |
18 | For you are the glory of their virtue, and in your goodness, our horn will be exalted. |
19 | For our assumption is of the Lord, and it is of our king, the holy one of Israel. |
20 | Then you spoke in a vision to your holy ones, and you said: I have stationed help with the powerful one, and I have exalted the elect one from my people. |
21 | I have found my servant David. I have anointed him with my holy oil. |
22 | For my hand will assist him, and my arm will fortify him. |
23 | The enemy will have no advantage over him, nor will the son of iniquity be positioned to harm him. |
24 | And I will cut down his enemies before his face. And those who hate him, I will turn to flight. |
25 | And my truth and my mercy will be with him. And his horn will be exalted in my name. |
26 | And I will place his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. |
27 | He will invoke me: "You are my father, my God, and the support of my salvation." |
28 | And I will make him the first-born, preeminent before the kings of the earth. |
29 | I will preserve my mercy for him eternally, and my covenant for him faithfully. |
30 | And I will set his offspring from generation to generation, and his throne like the days of heaven. |
31 | But if his sons abandon my law, and if they do not walk in my judgments, |
32 | if they profane my justices, and if they do not keep my commandments: |
33 | I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with a beating. |
34 | But I will not scatter my mercy from him, and I will not do harm to my truth. |
35 | And I will not profane my covenant, and I will not make void that which proceeds from my lips. |
36 | I have sworn by my holiness one time: I will not lie to David, |
37 | his offspring will remain for eternity. And his throne will be like the sun in my sight, |
38 | and, like the moon, it is perfected in eternity, and it is a faithful witness in heaven. |
39 | Yet, truly, you have rejected and despised, you have pushed away, my Christ. |
40 | You have overthrown the covenant of your servant. You have profaned his sanctuary on earth. |
41 | You have destroyed all his fences. You have made his territory dreadful. |
42 | All who pass by the way have plundered him. He has become a disgrace to his neighbors. |
43 | You have exalted the right hand of those who oppress him. You have brought joy to all his enemies. |
44 | You have diverted the help of his sword, and you have not assisted him in battle. |
45 | You have torn him away from cleansing, and you have smashed his throne down to the ground. |
46 | You have reduced the days of his time. You have flooded him with confusion. |
47 | How long, O Lord? Will you turn away unto the end? Will your wrath flare up like a fire? |
48 | Remember what my substance is. For could you really have appointed all the sons of men in vain? |
49 | Who is the man that will live, and yet not see death? Who will rescue his own soul from the hand of the underworld? |
50 | O Lord, where are your mercies of antiquity, just as you swore to David in your truth? |
51 | Be mindful, O Lord, of the disgrace of your servants (which I have sustained in my sinews) among many nations. |
52 | With these, your enemies have reproached you, O Lord; with these, they have reproached the commutation of your Christ. |
53 | Blessed is the Lord for all eternity. Amen. Amen. |