Psalms of Solomon 4

1Why do you, profane one, sit in a holy council, while your heart has gone far away from the Lord, provoking the God of Israel with proverbs?

2Excessive in speech, excessive in outward show above all others, the one harsh in speech to condemn sinners in judgment.

3And his hand is among the first against him, as if in zeal, but he himself is guilty in a variety of sinful deeds, in acts of self-indulgence.

4His eyes are on every woman without distinction; his tongue is deceitful in a transaction with an oath.

5At night and in secret places he sins as though unseen; with his eyes he speaks to every woman in a scheme of evil.

6quick to enter every house with cheerfulness, as if innocent.

7May God remove those who live in hypocrisy among the pious, in the corruption of his flesh and poverty his life.

8May God expose the deeds of the man-pleaser, his deeds with ridicule and derision.

9And may the devout vindicate the judgment of their God when sinners are removed from before the righteous man—even the one speaking what pleases a man, only with deceit.

10And their eyes are on a man's house in prosperity, like a snake, to undo one another's wisdom with lawless words.

12His words are false reasonings for carrying out the desire of unjust men.

13He did not stop until he had succeeded in scattering them as in orphanhood, and he made a house desolate because of lawless desire.

14He reasoned falsely in words, “There is no one who sees and judges.”

15He was filled with this lawlessness, and his eyes were set on another household to destroy it with relentless words; his soul is not satisfied, like Hades, with all these things.

16May his portion, O Lord, be in dishonor before you, his going out in groanings and his coming in in a curse.

17May his life be in pains and poverty and want, O Lord; his sleep in griefs, and his waking in distresses.

18May sleep be taken from his temples in the night; may they fall away from every work of his hands.

19And may his house lack everything that would fill his soul.

20May his old age be in the solitude of childlessness, for removal.

21May the flesh of people-pleasers be scattered by wild beasts, and the bones of the lawless lie before the sun in dishonor.

22May ravens pluck out the eyes of hypocrites,

23For he has laid waste many people’s households in disgrace, and scattered them by lust.

24And they did not remember God, and they did not fear God amid all these things.

25And they provoked God, and stirred him up to remove them from the land, because by deceit they pretended to be innocent people.

26Blessed are those who fear the Lord in their innocence.

27And the Lord will rescue them from deceitful and sinful people, and he will rescue us from every lawless snare.

28May God remove those who do every kind of unrighteousness in arrogance, for the Lord our God is a great and mighty judge in righteousness.

29May your mercy, O Lord, be upon all who love you.