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¹ A prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD. 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.