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