i1 [Maschil of Asaph.] i0 par Give ear, O my people, to my instruction; extend your ears to the words of my mouth.

Why do You stand afar off, O Jehovah? Will You hide in times of distress?

I will say to God my Rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why do you murmur within me? Hope in God; for I still praise Him for the deliverance coming from the presence of my God.

But You have cast us off and put us to shame, and You do not go forth with our armies.

i1 [To the Chief Musician. Shushaneduth. Michtam of David, to teach; when he struggled with Syrian Naharaim and with Syrian Maachah, when Joab returned and struck twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt.] i0 par O God, You have cast us off, You have broken us, You were angry; bring us back.

Have not You, O God, cast us off? And will not You, O God, go out with our armies?

Will the Lord cast off forever? And will He be pleased no more?

Thus says Jehovah, If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be searched out, then I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Jehovah.

Do you not consider what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which Jehovah has chosen, He has even cast them off? Thus they have despised My people, that they should no more be a nation before them.

then I will cast away the seed of Jacob, and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will bring back their captives, and have mercy on them.

I say then, has God cast away His people? Let it not be! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,

How long, Jehovah? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire?

Jehovah will not consent to forgive him; for then the anger of Jehovah and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and every curse that is written in this book shall lie down upon him, and Jehovah shall blot out his name from under the heavens.

So we, Your people and sheep of Your pasture, will continually give You thanks; we will show forth Your praise from generation to generation.

For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice:

Know that Jehovah, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture! says Jehovah.

As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock;

And you men, the flock of My pasture, are My flock; and I am your God, declares the Lord Jehovah.

Do not fear, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.

And I give them eternal life, and they shall never ever perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.

I and the Father are One.