54:10. Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.
54:11. Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour,
54:12. And injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.
54:13. For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden my self from him.
54:14. But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar,
54:15. Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.
54:16. Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them.
Let death, etc.... This, and such like imprecations which occur in the psalms, are delivered prophetically; that is, by way of foretelling the punishments which shall fall upon the wicked from divine justice, and approving the righteous ways of God: but not by way of ill will, or uncharitable curses, which the law of God disallows.
54:17. But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me.
54:18. Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice.