Psalm 12 - Lexham English Bible (LEB)

Human Faithlessness and God’s Faithfulness

For the music director; on the Sheminith.[a] A psalm of David.[b]

12 Save, O Yahweh, for the pious have ceased to be;
for the faithful have vanished
from among the children of humankind.
2 They speak falseness to each other.[c]
With flattering lips,
with a double heart[d] they speak.
3 May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue speaking great boasts—
4 those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail.
Our lips are on our side.
Who is master over us?”
5 “Because of the oppression of the afflicted,
because of the groaning of the poor,
now I will rise up,” Yahweh says.
“I shall put them in the safety for which they[e] long.”
6 The words of Yahweh are pure words
like silver refined in the crucible on the ground,
refined seven times.
7 You, O Yahweh, will protect them.
You will preserve him[f]
from this generation always.
8 The wicked prowl about
when vileness is exalted among the children of humankind.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 12:1 Meaning uncertain
  2. Psalm 12:1 The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one
  3. Psalm 12:2 Literally “each with his companion”
  4. Psalm 12:2 Literally “a heart and a heart”
  5. Psalm 12:5 Hebrew “he”
  6. Psalm 12:7 Or “us”