Psalm 109

Psalm 109 is a psalm in the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible and in the Latin Vulgate, this psalm is Psalm 108. In Latin, it is known as "Deus, laudem". It is attributed to King David and noted for containing some of the most severe curses in the Bible, such as [|verses 12] and [|13]. It has traditionally been called the "Judas Psalm" or "Iscariot Psalm" for an interpretation relating [|verse 8] to Judas Iscariot's punishment as noted in the New Testament.
The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies. It has been set to music.

Uses

In Judaism

Psalm 109 is recited on the day of Parshat Zachor,, the Shabbat immediately preceding Purim.

In political contexts

In the United States, verse 8, "May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership", has been used by a number of fundamentalist preachers who use the imprecatory psalm as an imprecatory prayer. Pastor Greg Dixon of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple had invoked it, which had been condemned by others. In 2009, the media reported more widely on its usage in reference to President Barack Obama, by those such as Pastor Wiley Drake. In January 2010, a Florida Sheriff's deputy was suspended for highlighting the passage in another deputy's bible and adding the note "The Obama Prayer" beside it. In January 2012, Kansas Speaker of the House Michael O'Neal sent an email quoting verse 8 to his Republican colleagues that stated, "At last – I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up – it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and Sisters, can I get an AMEN? AMEN!!!!!!" On June 10, 2016, Georgia Senator David Perdue quoted the verse, referencing Obama, at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority conference.
By the late summer of 2017, bumper stickers could be seen asking people to pray for US President Donald Trump with the same attribution.

In modern literature

Psalm 109 was used by Thomas Hardy in his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge. Michael Henchard, the protagonist of the novel, is drinking with the choir after practice when he sees his rival, Donald Farfrae, whom he hates. He later persuades the choir to sing Psalm 109. The choir master remarks of this psalm that, "Twasn't made for singing. We chose it once when the gypsy stole the parson's mare, thinking to please him, but parson were quite upset. Whatever Servant David were thinking about when he made a Psalm that nobody can sing without disgracing himself, I can't fathom."
Verse 6 of the same psalm figures prominently in M. R. James's supernatural story "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral", which recounts the guilt-ridden life and dismal death of Archdeacon John Haynes, who is haunted through the medium of wooden figures carved on the archdeacon's choir stall, which feel as though they come to life beneath his guilty hand.

…the wood seemed to become chilly and soft as if made of wet linen. I can assign the moment at which I became sensible of this.The choir were singing the words let Satan stand at his right hand.

James also features Psalm 109 as a plot device in "The Uncommon Prayer-Book", another of his ghost stories. The prayer-book of the title is discovered to have been had printed by ardent royalist Lady Sadleir of Brockstone Court, who so detested Oliver Cromwell that she stipulated in a rubric in her prayer-book - most unconventionally - that Psalm 109 be read in her chapel each year on St. Mark’s Day, April the 25th - Cromwell’s birthday - in order to damn him for all eternity.

In Anglicanism

According to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer Psalms 108 and 109 are said or sung at Evensong on the 22nd day of every month.

Musical settings

composed a four-part setting to a metric German paraphrase of Psalm 109, Herr Gott, deß ich mich rühmte viel, SVW 207, for the 1628 Becker Psalter.

Text

The following table shows the Hebrew text of the Psalm with vowels, alongside the Koine Greek text in the Septuagint and the English translation from the King James Version. Note that the meaning can slightly differ between these versions, as the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text come from different textual traditions. In the Septuagint, this psalm is numbered Psalm 108.

#	Hebrew	English	Greek
1		Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;	Εἰς τὸ τέλος· ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυΐδ. - Ο Θεός, τὴν αἴνεσίν μου μὴ παρασιωπήσῃς,
2		For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.	ὅτι στόμα ἁμαρτωλοῦ καὶ στόμα δολίου ἐπ᾿ ἐμὲ ἠνοίχθη, ἐλάλησαν κατ᾿ ἐμοῦ γλώσσῃ δολίᾳ
3		They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.	καὶ λόγοις μίσους ἐκύκλωσάν με καὶ ἐπολέμησάν με δωρεάν.
4		For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.	ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀγαπᾶν με ἐνδιέβαλλόν με, ἐγὼ δὲ προσηυχόμην·
5		And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.	καὶ ἔθεντο κατ᾿ ἐμοῦ κακὰ ἀντὶ ἀγαθῶν καὶ μῖσος ἀντὶ τῆς ἀγαπήσεώς μου.
6		Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.	κατάστησον ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸν ἁμαρτωλόν, καὶ διάβολος στήτω ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ·
7		When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.	ἐν τῷ κρίνεσθαι αὐτὸν ἐξέλθοι καταδεδικασμένος, καὶ ἡ προσευχὴ αὐτοῦ γενέσθω εἰς ἁμαρτίαν.
8		Let his days be few; and let another take his office.	γενηθήτωσαν αἱ ἡμέραι αὐτοῦ ὀλίγαι, καὶ τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν αὐτοῦ λάβοι ἕτερος.
9		Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.	γενηθήτωσαν οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ ὀρφανοὶ καὶ ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ χήρα·
10		Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.	σαλευόμενοι μεταναστήτωσαν οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐπαιτησάτωσαν, ἐκβληθήτωσαν ἐκ τῶν οἰκοπέδων αὐτῶν.
11		Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.	ἐξερευνησάτω δανειστὴς πάντα, ὅσα ὑπάρχει αὐτῷ, καὶ διαρπασάτωσαν ἀλλότριοι τοὺς πόνους αὐτοῦ·
12		Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.	μὴ ὑπαρξάτω αὐτῷ ἀντιλήπτωρ, μηδὲ γενηθήτω οἰκτίρμων τοῖς ὀρφανοῖς αὐτοῦ·
13		Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.	γενηθήτω τὰ τέκνα αὐτοῦ εἰς ἐξολόθρευσιν, ἐν γενεᾷ μιᾷ ἐξαλειφθείη τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ.
14		Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.	ἀναμνησθείη ἡ ἀνομία τῶν πατέρων αὐτοῦ ἔναντι Κυρίου, καὶ ἡ ἁμαρτία τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ μὴ ἐξαλειφθείη·
15		Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.	γενηθήτωσαν ἐναντίον Κυρίου διαπαντός, καὶ ἐξολοθρευθείη ἐκ γῆς τὸ μνημόσυνον αὐτῶν,
16		Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.	ἀνθ᾿ ὧν οὐκ ἐμνήσθη ποιῆσαι ἔλεος καὶ κατεδίωξεν ἄνθρωπον πένητα καὶ πτωχὸν καὶ κατανενυγμένον τῇ καρδίᾳ τοῦ θανατῶσαι.
17		As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.	καὶ ἠγάπησε κατάραν, καὶ ἥξει αὐτῷ· καὶ οὐκ ἠθέλησεν εὐλογίαν, καὶ μακρυνθήσεται ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ.
18		As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.	καὶ ἐνεδύσατο κατάραν ὡς ἱμάτιον, καὶ εἰσῆλθεν ὡσεὶ ὕδωρ εἰς τὰ ἔγκατα αὐτοῦ καὶ ὡσεὶ ἔλαιον ἐν τοῖς ὀστέοις αὐτοῦ.
19		Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.	γενηθήτω αὐτῷ ὡς ἱμάτιον, ὃ περιβάλλεται, καὶ ὡσεὶ ζώνη, ἣν διαπαντὸς περιζώννυται.
20		Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.	τοῦτο τὸ ἔργον τῶν ἐνδιαβαλλόντων με παρὰ Κυρίου καὶ τῶν λαλούντων πονηρὰ κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς μου.
21		But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.	καὶ σύ, Κύριε Κύριε, ποίησον μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ ἕνεκεν τοῦ ὀνόματός σου, ὅτι χρηστὸν τὸ ἔλεός σου. ῥῦσαί με,
22		For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.	ὅτι πτωχὸς καὶ πένης εἰμὶ ἐγώ, καὶ ἡ καρδία μου τετάρακται ἐντός μου.
23		I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.	ὡσεὶ σκιὰ ἐν τῷ ἐκκλῖναι αὐτὴν ἀντανῃρέθην, ἐξετινάχθην ὡσεὶ ἀκρίδες.
24		My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.	τὰ γόνατά μου ἠσθένησαν ἀπὸ νηστείας, καὶ ἡ σάρξ μου ἠλλοιώθη δι᾿ ἔλαιον.
25		I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.	κἀγὼ ἐγενήθην ὄνειδος αὐτοῖς· εἴδοσάν με, ἐσάλευσαν κεφαλὰς αὐτῶν.
26		Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy:	βοήθησόν μοι, Κύριε ὁ Θεός μου, καὶ σῶσόν με κατὰ τὸ ἔλεός σου.
27		That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.	καὶ γνώτωσαν ὅτι ἡ χείρ σου αὕτη καὶ σύ, Κύριε, ἐποίησας αὐτήν.
28		Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.	καταράσονται αὐτοί, καὶ σὺ εὐλογήσεις· οἱ ἐπανιστάμενοί μοι αἰσχυνθήτωσαν, ὁ δὲ δοῦλός σου εὐφρανθήσεται.
29		Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.	ἐνδυσάσθωσαν οἱ ἐνδιαβάλλοντές με ἐντροπὴν καὶ περιβαλέσθωσαν ὡς διπλοΐδα αἰσχύνην αὐτῶν.
30		I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.	ἐξομολογήσομαι τῷ Κυρίῳ σφόδρα ἐν τῷ στόματί μου καὶ ἐν μέσῳ πολλῶν αἰνέσω αὐτόν,
31		For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.	ὅτι παρέστη ἐκ δεξιῶν πένητος τοῦ σῶσαι ἐκ τῶν καταδιωκόντων τὴν ψυχήν μου.