Psalm 12

For the choir director. According to the Sheminith. A Psalm of David.

Save, O Yahweh, for the holy man ceases to be,

For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

They speak worthlessness to one another;

With a flattering lip and with a double heart they speak.

May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips,

The tongue that speaks great things;

Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail;

Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?”

“Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy,

Now I will arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.”

The words of Yahweh are pure words;

As silver tried in a furnace on the ground, refined seven times.

You, O Yahweh, will keep them;

You will guard him from this generation forever.

The wicked strut about on every side

When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.