1 Prayer of a sufferer overcome by weakness and pouring out his complaint beforeAdonai:
2 Adonai, hear my prayer!
Let my cry for help reach you!
3 Don’t hide your face from me
when I am in such distress!
Turn your ear toward me;
when I call, be quick to reply!
4 For my days are vanishing like smoke,
my bones are burning like a furnace.
5 I am stricken and withered like grass;
I forget to eat my food.
6 Because of my loud groaning,
I am just skin and bones.
7 I am like a great owl in the desert,
I’ve become like an owl in the ruins.
8 I lie awake and become
like a bird alone on the roof.
9 My enemies taunt me all day long;
mad with rage, they make my name a curse.
10 For I have been eating ashes like bread
and mingling tears with my drink
11 because of your furious anger,
since you picked me up just to toss me aside.
12 My days decline like an evening shadow;
I am drying up like grass.
13 But you,Adonai, are enthroned forever;
your renown will endure through all generations.
14 You will arise and take pity on Tziyon,
for the time has come to have mercy on her;
the time determined has come.
15 For your servants love her very stones;
they take pity even on her dust.
16 The nations will fear the name ofAdonai
and all the kings on earth your glory,
17 whenAdonaihas rebuilt Tziyon,
and shows himself in his glory,
18 when he has heeded the plea of the poor
and not despised their prayer.
19 May this be put on record for a future generation;
may a people yet to be created praiseAdonai.
20 For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary;
from heavenAdonaisurveys the earth
21 to listen to the sighing of the prisoner,
to set free those who are sentenced to death,
22 to proclaim the name ofAdonaiin Tziyon
and his praise in Yerushalayim
23 when peoples and kingdoms have been gathered together
to serveAdonai.
24 He has broken my strength in midcourse,
he has cut short my days.
25 I plead, “God, your years last through all generations;
so don’t take me away when my life is half over!
26 In the beginning, you laid the foundations of the earth;
heaven is the work of your hands.
27 They will vanish, but you will remain;
like clothing, they will all grow old;
yes, you will change them like clothing,
and they will pass away.
28 But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.
29 The children of your servants will live securely
and their descendants be established in your presence.”