Psalms 42 (ESV)

11 verses · English Standard Version · Essentially literal

The ESV balances word-for-word accuracy with modern English readability. Favored by scholars and pastors for study and preaching, it preserves the structure of the original Hebrew and Greek while using clear, contemporary language.

Psalms Chapter 42 contains 11 verses and is presented here in the English Standard Version (ESV), which uses a essentially literal approach. Read the full text below, compare with other translations, or navigate to any of the 150 chapters in Psalms.

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Chapter 41Chapter 43

1As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

3My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

4These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

5Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation

6and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

7Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.

8By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

9I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

11Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Chapter 41Read in NIVChapter 43

About This Translation

What is Psalms 42 in the ESV?

Psalms 42 in the English Standard Version (ESV) contains 11 verses. The ESV uses a essentially literal approach, first published in 2001 (rev. 2016).

How does the ESV translate Psalms 42 differently?

The English Standard Version uses essentially literal, balancing accuracy with modern readability. Compare this with the NIV (dynamic equivalence) version of Psalms 42 for a different perspective.

How many verses are in Psalms 42 (ESV)?

Psalms Chapter 42 contains 11 verses in the English Standard Version. The book of Psalms has 150 chapters total.

Psalms (ESV) — All 150 Chapters