Prayer for Instruction and Deliverance
3Yhwh, I call to you,
listen to me;
I extend my hands 4to your holy dwelling;
bend your ear and grant my plea,
and what I ask, 5do not deny me;
build up my soul and do not demolish it;
and do not forsake it in the presence of 6wicked people.
May the judge of truth turn away from me
the recompenses of evil.
O Yhwh, 7do not judge me by my sin
because no-one…
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This apocryphal psalm is found in Hebrew in the Psalms scroll (one of the Dead Sea Scrolls) from Qumran Cave 11 and in Syriac in the Peshitta. The Syriac version has a title ascribing the prayer to Hezekiah when Jerusalem was besieged by the Assyrians (2 Kings 18–19, particularly 19:15–19), but the psalm’s content is a generic petition for divine support.
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Related Guide
What Are Noncanonical Psalms?
2nd Century BCE–1st Century CE
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