1. God, I praise you! Hear my prayer and do something!
2. Wicked people are telling lies about me. They are saying things that are not true.
3. They are saying hateful things about me. They are attacking me for no reason.
4. I loved them, but they were against me. So I said a prayer.
5. I did good things to them, but they are doing bad things to me. I loved them, but they hated me.
6. They said, “Choose someone evil to represent him. Let the one at his side really be his accuser.
7. Let even his prayer be used as evidence against him, and let the court find him guilty.
8. Let his life be cut short, and let someone else take over his work.
9. Let his children become orphans and his wife a widow.
10. Make his children wander around as beggars, forced from homes that lie in ruins.
11. Let the people he owes take everything he owns. Let strangers get everything he worked for.
12. Let no one be kind to him. Let no one show mercy to his children.
13. May his family come to an end. May his name be unknown to future generations.
14. May the Lord remember the sins of his father, and may his mother’s sins never be erased.
15. May the Lord remember their sins forever, and may he cause people to forget his family completely.
16. He never did anything good. He never loved anyone. He made life hard for the poor and the helpless.
17. He loved to curse others, so let those bad things happen to him. He never blessed others, so don’t let good things happen to him.
18. Cursing was a daily part of his life, like the clothes he wears. Cursing others became a part of him, like the water he drinks and the oil he puts on his body.
19. So let curses cover him like the robe he wears and always surround him like a belt.”