The Message Bible MSG
New International Version NIV
7 You pushed me into this, God, and I let you do it. You were too much for me. And now I'm a public joke. They all poke fun at me.
7
You deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived ; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me.
8 Every time I open my mouth I'm shouting, "Murder!" or "Rape!" And all I get for my God-warnings are insults and contempt.
8
Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long.
9 But if I say, "Forget it! No more God-Messages from me!" The words are fire in my belly, a burning in my bones. I'm worn out trying to hold it in. I can't do it any longer!
9
But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.
10 Then I hear whispering behind my back: "There goes old 'Danger-Everywhere.' Shut him up! Report him!" Old friends watch, hoping I'll fall flat on my face: "One misstep and we'll have him. We'll get rid of him for good!"
10
I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!” All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.”
11 But God, a most fierce warrior, is at my side. Those who are after me will be sent sprawling - Slapstick buffoons falling all over themselves, a spectacle of humiliation no one will ever forget.
11
But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten.
12 Oh, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, no one fools you. You see through everyone, everything. I want to see you pay them back for what they've done. I rest my case with you.
12
LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have committed my cause.
13 Sing to God! All praise to God! He saves the weak from the grip of the wicked.
13
Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.
14 Curse the day I was born! The day my mother bore me - a curse on it, I say!
14
Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
15 And curse the man who delivered the news to my father: "You've got a new baby - a boy baby!" (How happy it made him.)
15
Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, “A child is born to you—a son!”
16 Let that birth notice be blacked out, deleted from the records, And the man who brought it haunted to his death with the bad news he brought.
16
May that man be like the towns the LORD overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon.
17 He should have killed me before I was born, with that womb as my tomb, My mother pregnant for the rest of her life with a baby dead in her womb.
17
For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever.
18 Why, oh why, did I ever leave that womb? Life's been nothing but trouble and tears, and what's coming is more of the same.
18
Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.