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¹ Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to thee. ² Turn not away thy face from me: in the day when I am afflicted, incline thine ear to me: in the day when I shall call upon thee, speedily hear me. ³ For my days have vanished like smoke, and my bones have been parched like a stick. ⁴ I am blighted like grass, and my heart is dried up; for I have forgotten to eat my bread. ⁵ By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bone has cleaved to my flesh. ⁶ I have become like a pelican of the wilderness; ⁷ I have become like an owl in a ruined house. I have watched, and am become as a sparrow dwelling alone on a roof. ⁸ All the day long mine enemies have reproached me; and they that praised me have sworn against me. ⁹ For I have eaten ashes as it were bread, and mingled my drink with weeping; ¹⁰ because of thine anger and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and dashed me down. ¹¹ My days have declined like a shadow; and I am withered like grass.

¹² But thou, Lord, endurest for ever, and thy memorial to generation and generation. ¹³ Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Sion: for it is time to have mercy upon her, for the set time is come. ¹⁴ For thy servants have taken pleasure in her stones, and they shall pity her dust. ¹⁵ So the nations shall fear thy name, O Lord, and all kings thy glory. ¹⁶ For the Lord shall build up Sion, and shall appear in his glory. ¹⁷ He has had regard to the prayer of the lowly, and has not despised their petition. ¹⁸ Let this be written for another generation; and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord. ¹⁹ For he has looked out from the height of his sanctuary; the Lord looked upon the earth from heaven; ²⁰ to hear the groaning of the fettered ones, to loosen the sons of the slain; ²¹ to proclaim the name of the Lord in Sion, and his praise in Jerusalem; ²² when the people are gathered together, and the kings, to serve the Lord.

²³ He answered him in the way of his strength: tell me the fewness of my days. ²⁴ Take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are through all generations. ²⁵ In the beginning thou, O Lord, didst lay the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands. ²⁶ They shall perish, but thou remainest: and they all shall wax old as a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them, and they shall be changed. ²⁷ But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. ²⁸ The children of thy servants shall dwell securely, and their seed shall prosper for ever.