1. LISTEN TO my prayer, O God, and hide not Yourself from my supplication!
2. Attend to me and answer me; I am restless and distraught in my complaint and must moan
3. [And I am distracted] at the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression and threats of the wicked; for they would cast trouble upon me, and in wrath they persecute me.
4. My heart is grievously pained within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5. Fear and trembling have come upon me; horror and fright have overwhelmed me.
6. And I say, Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.
7. Yes, I would wander far away, I would lodge in the wilderness. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
8. I would hasten to escape and to find a shelter from the stormy wind and tempest.
9. Destroy [their schemes], O Lord, confuse their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10. Day and night they go about on its walls; iniquity and mischief are in its midst.
11. Violence and ruin are within it; fraud and guile do not depart from its streets and marketplaces.
12. For it is not an enemy who reproaches and taunts me–then I might bear it; nor is it one who has hated me who insolently vaunts himself against me–then I might hide from him.
13. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend.