Psalms 7
Old Testament · Brenton Septuagint with Greek parallel
Psalms chapter 7 is given here in full, verse by verse, in Sir Lancelot Brenton's classic English translation of the Septuagint (LXX), with the Greek text of the Septuagint set beneath each verse. The text follows the Septuagint tradition received throughout the Orthodox Church.
12 patristic excerpts are attached to this chapter, from Saint Augustine of Hippo. The translator's notes for this chapter (2) follow the text.
Psalms 7
1A Psalm of David, which he sang to the Lord because of the words of Chusi the * Benjamite.Ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυὶδ, ὃν ᾖσε τῷ Κυρίῳ ὑπὲρ τῶν λόγων Χουσὶ υἱοῦ Ἰεμενεί.
2O Lord my God, in you have I trusted: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me.Κύριε ὁ Θεός μου, ἐπὶ σοὶ ἤλπισα, σῶσόν με ἐκ πάντων τῶν διωκόντων με, καὶ ῥῦσαί με,
3Lest at any time the enemy seize my soul as a lion, while there is none to ransom, nor to save.μή ποτε ἁρπάσῃ ὡς λέων τὴν ψυχήν μου, μὴ ὄντος λυτρουμένου, μηδὲ σώζοντος.
4O Lord my God, if I have done this; (if there is unrighteousness in my hands;)Κύριε ὁ Θεός μου, εἰ ἐποίησα τοῦτο, εἰ ἔστιν ἀδικία ἐν χερσί μου,
5if I have requited with evil those who requited me with good; may I then perish empty by means of my enemies.εἰ ἀνταπέδωκα τοῖς ἀνταποδιδοῦσί μοι κακὰ, ἀποπέσοιμι ἄρα ἀπὸ τῶν ἐχθρῶν μου κενός·
6Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; and let him trample my life on the ground, and lay my glory in the dust. Pause.Καταδιώξαι ὁ ἐχθρὸς τὴν ψυχήν μου καὶ καταλάβοι, καὶ καταπατήσαι εἰς γῆν τὴν ζωήν μου, καὶ τὴν δόξαν μου εἰς χοῦν κατασκηνώσαι· διάψαλμα.
7Arise, O Lord, in your wrath; be exalted † in the utmost boundaries of my enemies: awake, O Lord my God, according to the decree which you did command.Ἀνάστηθι Κύριε ἐν ὀργῇ σου, ὑψώθητι ἐν τοῖς πέρασι τῶν ἐχθρῶν μου· ἐξεγέρθητι Κύριε ὁ Θεός μου ἐν προστάγματι ᾧ ἐνετείλω,
8And the congregation of the nations shall compass you: and for this cause do you return on high.καὶ συναγωγὴ λαῶν κυκλώσει σε· καὶ ὑπὲρ ταύτης εἰς ὕψος ἐπίστρεψον.
9The Lord shall judge the nations: judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my innocence that is in me.Κύριος κρινεῖ λαούς· κρίνον με Κύριε κατὰ τὴν δικαιοσύνην μου, καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἀκακίαν μου ἐπʼ ἐμοί.
10Oh let the wickedness of sinners come to an end; and then you shall direct the righteous, O God that search the hearts and reins.Συντελεσθήτω δὴ πονηρία ἁμαρτωλῶν, καὶ κατευθυνεῖς δίκαιον, ἐτάζων καρδίας καὶ νεφροὺς ὁ Θεός.
11My help is righteous, coming from God who saves the upright in heart.Δικαία ἡ βοήθειά μου παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ σώζοντος τοὺς εὐθεῖς τῇ καρδίᾳ.
12God is a righteous judge, and strong, and patient, not inflicting vengeance every day.Ὁ Θεὸς κριτὴς δίκαιος, καὶ ἰσχυρὸς, καὶ μακρόθυμος, μὴ ὀργὴν ἐπάγων καθʼ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν.
13If you will not repent, he will furbish his sword; he has bent his bow, and made it ready.Ἐὰν μὴ ἐπιστραφῆτε, τὴν ῥομφαίαν αὐτοῦ στιλβώσει, τὸ τόξον αὐτοῦ ἐνέτεινε, καὶ ἡτοίμασεν αὐτό.
14And on it he has fitted the instruments of death; he has completed his arrows for the ‡ raging ones.Καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ ἡτοίμασε σκεύη θανάτου, τὰ βέλη αὐτοῦ τοῖς καιομένοις ἐξειργάσατο.
15Behold, he has travailed with unrighteousness, he has conceived trouble, and brought forth iniquity.Ἰδοὺ ὠδίνησεν ἀδικίαν, συνέλαβε πόνον, καὶ ἔτεκεν ἀνομίαν.
16He has opened a pit, and dug it up, and he shall fall into the ditch which he has made.Λάκκον ὤρυξε καὶ ἀνέσκαψεν αὐτὸν, καὶ ἐμπεσεῖται εἰς βόθρον ὃν εἰργάσατο.
17His trouble shall return on his own head, and his unrighteousness shall come down on his own crown.Ἐπιστρέψει ὁ πόνος αὐτοῦ εἰς κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπὶ κορυφὴν αὐτοῦ ἡ ἀδικία αὐτοῦ καταβήσεται.
18I will give thanks to the Lord according to his righteousness; I will sing to the name of the Lord most high.Ἐξομολογήσομαι Κυρίῳ κατὰ τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ, ψαλῶ τῷ ὀνόματι Κυρίου τοῦ ὑψίστου.
Translator's Notes
These notes come from the printed edition of Sir Lancelot Brenton's classic English translation of the Septuagint (LXX), and record where the Greek differs from the English rendering or admits more than one reading.
- v. 6†Heb. 'because of my enemies.'
- v. 13‡See Heb. perhaps 'persecuting ones.'
The Fathers on Psalms 7
Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this chapter. Each excerpt below is drawn from the full text held in the Fathers Library; follow the link on any entry to read the whole work.
On Psalms 7:2Saint Augustine of Hippo2. “O Lord my God, in Thee have I hoped: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me” (ver. 1). As one to whom, already perfected, all the war and enmity of vice being overcome, there remaineth no enemy but the envious devil, he says, “Save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me (ver. 2): lest at any time he tear my soul as a lion.” The Apostle says, “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring…
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On Psalms 7:2, 4Saint Augustine of Hippo3. And that it might be clear that the already perfect soul, which is to be on her guard against the most insidious snares of the devil only, says this, see what follows. “O Lord my God, if I have done this” (ver. 3). What is it that he calls “this”? Since he does not mention the sin by name, are we to understand sin generally? If this sense displease us, we may take that to be meant which follows: as if we had…
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On Psalms 7:6Saint Augustine of Hippo4. “Let the enemy” therefore “persecute my soul and take it” (ver. 5). By again naming the enemy in the singular number, he more and more clearly points out him whom he spoke of above as a lion. For he persecutes the soul, and if he has deceived it, will take it. For the limit of men’s rage is the destruction of the body; but the soul, after this visible death, they cannot keep in their power: whereas whatever…
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On Psalms 7:7Saint Augustine of Hippo5. “Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger” (ver. 6). Why yet does he, who we say is perfect, incite God to anger? Must we not see, whether he rather be not perfect, who, when he was being stoned, said, “O Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”? Or does the Psalmist pray thus not against men, but against the devil and his angels, whose possession sinners and the ungodly are? He then does not pray against him in wrath,…
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On Psalms 7:10Saint Augustine of Hippo9. “But let the wickedness of sinners be consummated” (ver. 9). He says, “be consummated,” be completed, according to that in the Apocalypse, “Let the righteous become more righteous, and let the filthy be filthy still.” For the wickedness of those men appears consummate, who crucified the Son of God; but greater is theirs who will not live uprightly, and hate the precepts of truth, for whom the Son of God was…
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On Psalms 7:11Saint Augustine of Hippo10. “My righteous help is from the Lord, who maketh whole the upright in heart” (ver. 10). The offices of medicine are twofold, on the curing infirmity, the other the preserving health. According to the first it was said in the preceding Psalm, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak;” according to the second it is said in this Psalm, “If there be iniquity in my hands, if I have repaid them that recompense me…
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On Psalms 7:12Saint Augustine of Hippo12. “God the righteous judge, strong (in endurance) and long-suffering” (ver. 11). What God is judge, but the Lord, who judgeth the people? He is righteous; who “shall render to every man according to his works.” He is strong (in endurance); who, being most powerful, for our salvation bore even with ungodly persecutors. He is long-suffering; who did not immediately, after His resurrection, hurry away to…
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On Psalms 7:13Saint Augustine of Hippo13. “Unless ye be converted,” He says, “He will brandish His sword” (ver. 12). The Lord Man Himself may be taken to be God’s double-edged sword, that is, His spear, which at His first coming He will not brandish, but hideth as it were in the sheath of humiliation: but He will brandish it, when at the second coming to judge the quick and dead, in the manifest splendour of His glory, He shall flash light on His…
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On Psalms 7:14Saint Augustine of Hippo14. “And in it He hath prepared the instruments of death: He hath wrought His arrows for the burning” (ver. 13). That bow then I would readily take to be the Holy Scripture, in which by the strength of the New Testament, as by a sort of string, the hardness of the Old has been bent and subdued. From thence the Apostles are sent forth like arrows, or divine preachings are shot. Which arrows “He has wrought for the…
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On Psalms 7:16Saint Augustine of Hippo17. “He hath opened a ditch, and digged it” (ver. 15). To open a ditch is, in earthly matters, that is, as it were in the earth, to prepare deceit, that another fall therein, whom the unrighteous man wishes to deceive. Now this ditch is opened when consent is given to the evil suggestion of earthly lusts: but it is digged when after consent we press on to actual work of deceit. But how can it be, that iniquity…
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On Psalms 7:17Saint Augustine of Hippo18. “His toil shall be turned on his head, and his iniquity shall descend on his pate” (ver. 16). For he had no mind to escape sin: but was brought under sin as a slave, so to say, as the Lord saith, “Whosoever sinneth is a slave.” His iniquity then will be upon him, when he is subject to his iniquity; for he could not say to the Lord, what the innocent and upright say, “My glory, and the lifter up of my head.”…
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On Psalms 7:18Open Psalms 7 in the interactive reader Switch translations, hear the chapter read aloud, tap any verse for its patristic commentary, and study the Greek word by word.Saint Augustine of Hippo19. “I will confess to the Lord according to His justice” (ver. 17). This is not the sinner’s confession: for he says this, who said above most truly, “If there be iniquity in my hands:” but it is a confession of God’s justice, in which we speak thus, Verily, O Lord, Thou art just, in that Thou both so protectest the just, that Thou enlightenest them by Thyself; and so orderest sinners, that they be punished not…
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