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Psalm 108

David in the person of Christ, prays against his persecutors; more especially the traitor Judas: foretelling and approving his just punishment for his obstinacy in sin and final impenitence.

Does this psalm differ from what you were expecting? Don't be confused. There are two systems for arranging the psalms: the Septuagint and the Masoretic. We use the Septuagint system here. In the Masoretic system, which is used in most modern Bible translations, this psalm is called Psalm 109, and the previous psalm is known as Psalm 108.

English (Douay-Rheims)

1 Unto the end, a psalm for David.

2 O God, be not thou silent in my praise: for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me.
3 They have spoken against me with deceitful tongues; and they have compassed me about with words of hatred; and have fought against me without cause.
4 Instead of making me a return of love, they detracted me: but I gave myself to prayer.
5 And they repaid me evil for good: and hatred for my love.
6 Set thou the sinner over him: and may the devil stand at his right hand. Set thou the sinner over him, etc... Give to the devil, that arch-sinner, power over him: let him enter into him, and possess him. The imprecations, contained in the thirty verses of this psalm, are opposed to the thirty pieces of silver for which Judas betrayed our Lord; and are to be taken as prophetic denunciations of the evils that should befall the traitor and his accomplices the Jews; and not properly as curses.
7 When he is judged, may he go out condemned; and may his prayer be turned to sin.
8 May his days be few: and his bishopric let another take.
9 May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be carried about vagabonds, and beg; and let them be cast out of their dwellings.
11 May the usurer search all his substance: and let strangers plunder his labours.
12 May there be none to help him: nor none to pity his fatherless offspring.
13 May his posterity be cut off; in one generation may his name be blotted out.
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered in the sight of the Lord: and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 May they be before the Lord continually, and let the memory of them perish from the earth: 16 Because he remembered not to show mercy,
17 But persecuted the poor man and the beggar; and the broken in heart, to put him to death.
18 And he loved cursing, and it shall come unto him: and he would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him. And he put on cursing, like a garment: and it went in like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones.
19 May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him; and like a girdle with which he is girded continually.
20 This is the work of them who detract me before the Lord; and who speak evils against my soul.
21 But thou, O Lord, do with me for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is sweet. Do thou deliver me,
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is troubled within me.
23 I am taken away like the shadow when it declineth: and I am shaken off as locusts.
24 My knees are weakened through fasting: and my flesh is changed for oil. For oil... Propter oleum. The meaning is, my flesh is changed, being perfectly emaciated and dried up, as having lost all its oil or fatness.
25 And I am become a reproach to them: they saw me and they shaked their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God; save me; according to thy mercy.
27 And let them know that this is thy hand: and that thou, O Lord, hast done it.
28 They will curse and thou wilt bless: let them that rise up against me be confounded: but thy servant shall rejoice.
29 Let them that detract me be clothed with shame: and let them be covered with their confusion as with a double cloak.
30 I will give great thanks to the Lord with my mouth: and in the midst of many I will praise him.
31 Because he hath stood at the right hand of the poor, to save my soul from persecutors.

Old Testament first published 1609 by the English College at Douay
New Testament first published 1582 by the English College at Rheims
Revised and Annotated 1749 by Bishop Richard Challoner
Imprimatur. +James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, September 1, 1899

Latin (Clementine Vulgate)

1 In finem. Psalmus David.

2 Deus, laudem meam ne tacueris,
quia os peccatoris et os dolosi super me apertum est.
3 Locuti sunt adversum me lingua dolosa,
et sermonibus odii circumdederunt me:
et expugnaverunt me gratis.
4 Pro eo ut me diligerent, detrahebant mihi;
ego autem orabam.
5 Et posuerunt adversum me mala pro bonis,
et odium pro dilectione mea.
6 Constitue super eum peccatorem,
et diabolus stet a dextris ejus.
7 Cum judicatur, exeat condemnatus;
et oratio ejus fiat in peccatum.
8 Fiant dies ejus pauci,
et episcopatum ejus accipiat alter.
9 Fiant filii ejus orphani,
et uxor ejus vidua.
10 Nutantes transferantur filii ejus et mendicent,
et ejiciantur de habitationibus suis.
11 Scrutetur fœnerator omnem substantiam ejus,
et diripiant alieni labores ejus.
12 Non sit illi adjutor,
nec sit qui misereatur pupillis ejus.
13 Fiant nati ejus in interitum;
in generatione una deleatur nomen ejus.
14 In memoriam redeat iniquitas patrum ejus in conspectu Domini,
et peccatum matris ejus non deleatur.
15 Fiant contra Dominum semper,
et dispereat de terra memoria eorum:
16 pro eo quod non est recordatus facere misericordiam,
17 et persecutus est hominem inopem et mendicum,
et compunctum corde, mortificare.
18 Et dilexit maledictionem, et veniet ei;
et noluit benedictionem, et elongabitur ab eo.
Et induit maledictionem sicut vestimentum;
et intravit sicut aqua in interiora ejus,
et sicut oleum in ossibus ejus.
19 Fiat ei sicut vestimentum quo operitur,
et sicut zona qua semper præcingitur.
20 Hoc opus eorum qui detrahunt mihi apud Dominum,
et qui loquuntur mala adversus animam meam.
21 Et tu, Domine, Domine, fac mecum propter nomen tuum,
quia suavis est misericordia tua.
22 Libera me, quia egenus et pauper ego sum,
et cor meum conturbatum est intra me.
23 Sicut umbra cum declinat ablatus sum,
et excussus sum sicut locustæ.
24 Genua mea infirmata sunt a jejunio,
et caro mea immutata est propter oleum.
25 Et ego factus sum opprobrium illis;
viderunt me, et moverunt capita sua.
26 Adjuva me, Domine Deus meus;
salvum me fac secundum misericordiam tuam.
27 Et sciant quia manus tua hæc,
et tu, Domine, fecisti eam.
28 Maledicent illi, et tu benedices:
qui insurgunt in me confundantur;
servus autem tuus lætabitur.
29 Induantur qui detrahunt mihi pudore,
et operiantur sicut diploide confusione sua.
30 Confitebor Domino nimis in ore meo,
et in medio multorum laudabo eum:
31 quia astitit a dextris pauperis,
ut salvam faceret a persequentibus animam meam.

Transcribed as part of the Clementine Vulgate Project
Please notify the original transcriber (little.mouth@soon.com) of any errors in this Latin edition