| 1 | Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to thee! |
| 2 | Do not hide thy face from me in the day of my distress! Incline thy ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! |
| 3 | For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. |
| 4 | My heart is smitten like grass, and withered; I forget to eat my bread. |
| 5 | Because of my loud groaning my bones cleave to my flesh. |
| 6 | I am like a vulture of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; |
| 7 | I lie awake, I am like a lonely bird on the housetop. |
| 8 | All the day my enemies taunt me, those who deride me use my name for a curse. |
| 9 | For I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink, |
| 10 | because of thy indignation and anger; for thou hast taken me up and thrown me away. |
| 11 | My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass. |
| 12 | But thou, O LORD, art enthroned for ever; thy name endures to all generations. |
| 13 | Thou wilt arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come. |
| 14 | For thy servants hold her stones dear, and have pity on her dust. |
| 15 | The nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. |
| 16 | For the LORD will build up Zion, he will appear in his glory; |
| 17 | he will regard the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their supplication. |
| 18 | Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet unborn may praise the LORD: |
| 19 | that he looked down from his holy height, from heaven the LORD looked at the earth, |
| 20 | to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die; |
| 21 | that men may declare in Zion the name of the LORD, and in Jerusalem his praise, |
| 22 | when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the LORD. |
| 23 | He has broken my strength in mid-course; he has shortened my days. |
| 24 | "O my God," I say, "take me not hence in the midst of my days, thou whose years endure throughout all generations!" |
| 25 | Of old thou didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. |
| 26 | They will perish, but thou dost endure; they will all wear out like a garment. Thou changest them like raiment, and they pass away; |
| 27 | but thou art the same, and thy years have no end. |
| 28 | The children of thy servants shall dwell secure; their posterity shall be established before thee. |
