- 1
- ¶ I SAID, I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue;
I will keep the words of my mouth under control while the wicked is before me.
- 2
- I was dumb and sorrowful, I was wretched, I held myself aloof, even from good;
and my sorrow was multiplied.
- 3
- My heart was hot within me;
and my body was on fire; then spoke I with my tongue,
- 4
- LORD, show me mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is;
that I may know my destiny.
- 5
- Behold, thou hast given my days a limit;
and mine age is as nothing before thee; verily all men stand as a mere breath.
- 6
- Because every man walks as an image, he disappears as a breath;
he buries treasures and knows not who shall gather them.
- 7
- ¶ Henceforth, what is my hope except in thee, O LORD?
- 8
- Deliver thou me from all my transgressions;
make me not the reproach of the unjust.
- 9
- I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it.
- 10
- Remove thy scourges from me;
I am stricken by the blow of thy hand.
- 11
- I am consumed by rebuke on account of my sins;
thou dost chastise a man and dost remove his desires like stubble. Verily all men are like a breath.
- 12
- Hear my prayer, O LORD;
give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears; for I am a dweller with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
- 13
- O deliver me, that I may rest in peace before I pass away and be no more.
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