Psalms 59

World English Bible 89 include this book

1 Deliver me from my enemies, my God. Set me on high from those who rise up against me.

2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity. Save me from the bloodthirsty men.

3 For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, LORD.

4 I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!

5 You, LORD God of Armies, the God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish the nations. Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah.

6 They return at evening, howling like dogs, and prowl around the city.

7 Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, “For”, they say, “who hears us?”

8 But you, LORD, laugh at them. You scoff at all the nations.

9 Oh, my Strength, I watch for you, for God is my high tower.

10 My God will go before me with his loving kindness. God will let me look at my enemies in triumph.

11 Don’t kill them, or my people may forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.

12 For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride, for the curses and lies which they utter.

13 Consume them in wrath. Consume them, and they will be no more. Let them know that God rules in Jacob, to the ends of the earth. Selah.

14 At evening let them return. Let them howl like a dog, and go around the city.

15 They shall wander up and down for food, and wait all night if they aren’t satisfied.

16 But I will sing of your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning. For you have been my high tower, a refuge in the day of my distress.

17 To you, my strength, I will sing praises. For God is my high tower, the God of my mercy.

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28 places named in this book — no place is named in this chapter, so the whole book is shown.

Where this was written

Jerusalem traditional Assembled for temple worship over several centuries.

When this was written

The traditions broadly agree on this one.

Broad agreement: 1010 BC–400 BC David and many others
The Psalter is a collection assembled over centuries; individual psalms range widely in date.

Elsewhere in the world

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (1010 BC–400 BC).

1200 BC–1000 BC Iron working spreads in the Levant Levant
Iron gradually displaced bronze for tools and weapons across the eastern Mediterranean.
1200 BC–400 BC Olmec civilisation Mesoamerica
The earliest major Mesoamerican civilisation, known for colossal stone heads and an early calendar.
1200 BC–600 BC Zoroaster teaches in Persia Persia
Founder of Zoroastrianism, whose dating is disputed by as much as six centuries. His teaching on a cosmic struggle between good and evil later touched Jewish and Christian thought.
1070 BC–350 AD The kingdom of Kush Africa
A Nubian power on the upper Nile that ruled Egypt itself as its twenty-fifth dynasty.
776 BC First recorded Olympiad Greece
The traditional starting point of Greek historical chronology.
753 BC Traditional founding of Rome Rome
The legendary date of Rome's founding, later used as the anchor of the Roman calendar.
745 BC–609 BC Neo-Assyrian empire at its height Mesopotamia
Assyria dominated the Near East, deporting conquered populations as policy, including the northern kingdom of Israel.
620 BC–560 BC Coinage invented in Lydia Anatolia
Stamped electrum coins of guaranteed weight, an idea that spread across the ancient world within a century.

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