PSALTERIVM

PSALMVS XXXIV

A Prayer Against Enemies

Iudica Domine nocentes me is an imprecatory psalm calling on God to take up arms—shield, sword, and spear—against those who persecute the innocent. In the 1962 Breviary it appears at Thursday Matins and extensively in Holy Week, being read as prophetic of Christ's Passion.

LATINE
Iudica, Domine, nocentes me, expugna impugnantes me.
Apprehende arma et scutum: et exsurge in adiutorium mihi.
Effunde frameam, et conclude adversus eos qui persequuntur me: dic animae meae: Salus tua ego sum.
Confundantur et revereantur quaerentes animam meam.
ENGLISH
Judge thou, O Lord, them that wrong me: overthrow them that fight against me.
Take hold of arms and shield: and rise up to help me.
Bring out the sword, and shut up the way against them that persecute me: say to my soul: I am thy salvation.
Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek after my soul.
NOTA
FONS
Douay-Rheims (1609) / Vulgata
USUS
Passiontide, Against Persecution
CONTEXT
Psalm 35 in Hebrew numbering. Used in Holy Week as a prophecy of Christ's Passion.