For the Chief Musician; set to {Or, the eighth}the Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
Help, Jehovah; for the godly man ceaseth;
For {Or, faithfulness failed}the faithful fail from among the children of men.
They speak falsehood every one with his neighbor:
With flattering lip, and with a double heart, do they speak.
Jehovah will cut off all flattering lips,
The tongue that speaketh great things;
Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail;
Our lips are {Hebrew: with us.}our own: who is lord over us?
Because of the oppression of the poor, because of the sighing of the needy,
Now will I arise, saith Jehovah;
I will set him in the safety he panteth for.
The words of Jehovah are pure words;
As silver tried in a furnace on the earth,
Purified seven times.
Thou wilt keep them, O Jehovah,
Thou wilt preserve them from this generation for ever.
The wicked walk on every side,
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
Querverweise zu Psalm 12,8 Ps 12,8
If a ruler hearkeneth to falsehood,All his servants are wicked.
and ye are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maid-servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother);
if ye then have dealt truly and uprightly with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:
but if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.
And Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.
And Abimelech was prince over Israel three years.
And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:
that the violence done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid upon Abimelech their brother, who slew them, and upon the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to slay his brethren.
And the men of Shechem set liers-in-wait for him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all that came along that way by them: and it was told Abimelech.
And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brethren, and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their trust in him.
And they went out into the field, and gathered their vineyards, and trod the grapes, and {Or, offered a praise-offering}held festival, and went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abimelech.
And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? is not he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve ye the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: but why should we serve him?
And would that this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. And he said {Or, of}to Abimelech, Increase thine army, and come out.
And when Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled.
And he sent messengers unto Abimelech {Or, in Tormah}craftily, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren are come to Shechem; and, behold, they {Or, oppress the city on thy account}constrain the city to take part against thee.
Now therefore, up by night, thou and the people that are with thee, and lie in wait in the field:
and it shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early, and rush upon the city; and, behold, when he and the people that are with him come out against thee, then mayest thou do to them {Hebrew: as thy hand shall find.}as thou shalt find occasion.
And Abimelech rose up, and all the people that were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies.
And Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and Abimelech rose up, and the people that were with him, from the ambushment.
And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come people down from the tops of the mountains. And Zebul said unto him, Thou seest the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.
And Gaal spake again and said, See, there come people down by the {Hebrew: navel.}middle of the land, and one company cometh by the way of {That is, the augurs' oak (or, terebinth).}the oak of Meonenim.
Then said Zebul unto him, Where is now thy mouth, that thou saidst, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that thou hast despised? go out now, I pray, and fight with them.
And Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.
And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and there fell many wounded, even unto the entrance of the gate.
And Abimelech dwelt at Arumah: and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brethren, that they should not dwell in Shechem.
And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people went out into the field; and they told Abimelech.
And he took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field; and he looked, and, behold, the people came forth out of the city; and he rose up against them, and smote them.
And Abimelech, and the companies that were with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and the two companies rushed upon all that were in the field, and smote them.
And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that were therein: and he beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.
And when all the men of the tower of Shechem heard thereof, they entered into the stronghold of the house of Elberith.
And it was told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together.
And Abimelech gat him up to mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were with him; and Abimelech took {Hebrew: the axes.}an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder: and he said unto the people that were with him, What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done.
And all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire upon them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.
Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.
But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut themselves in, and gat them up to the roof of the tower.
And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and drew near unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire.
And a certain woman cast an upper millstone upon Abimelech's head, and brake his skull.
Then he called hastily unto the young man his armorbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and kill me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.
And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place.
Thus God requited the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren;
and all the wickedness of the men of Shechem did God requite upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.
They are children of fools, yea, children of {Hebrew: men of no name.}base men;They {Or, are outcasts from the land}were scouraged out of the land.
Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; because he was content to walk after man's command.
And Saul said to David, Behold, my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight Jehovah's battles. For Saul said, Let not my hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
And in his {Or, office}place shall stand up a contemptible person, to whom they had not given the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in time of security, and shall obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I may make thee {Or, an astonishment}a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing: and ye shall bear the reproach of my people.
And David said unto Saul, Who am I, and {Or, who are my kinsfolk}what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?
But he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had made known to him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.
In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and {Or, separated}dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of every people; neither keep they the king's laws: therefore it is not {Or, meet for the king}for the king's profit to suffer them.
If it please the king, let it be written that they be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those that have the charge of the king's business, to bring it into the king's treasuries.
And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy.
And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee.
Then were the king's {Or, secretaries}scribes called in the first month, on the thirteenth day thereof; and there was written according to all that Haman commanded unto the king's satraps, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the princes of every people, to every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and it was sealed with the king's ring.
And letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.
A copy of the writing, {Or, to be given out for a decree}that the decree should be given out in every province, was published unto all the peoples, that they should be ready against that day.
The posts went forth in haste by the king's commandment, and the decree was given out in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.
And the heart of the {Hebrew: hasty.}rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
The fool shall be no more called noble, nor the {Or, crafty}churl said to be bountiful.
For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise profaneness, and to utter error against Jehovah, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
And the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What further need have we of witnesses?
Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be {Greek: liable to.}worthy of death.
And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the officers received him with {Or, strokes of rods}blows of their hands.