⁰A prayer of an afflicted one, when he grows faint and pours out his complaint before the face of Yahweh.

¹Yahweh, hear my prayer, and let my cry for help come to you.

²Do not hide your face from me on the day it is tight for me; incline your ear to me; on the day I call out, hurry, answer me.

³For my days have come to an end in smoke, and my bones are scorched like a burning mass.

⁴My heart is struck like grass and has withered; for I forget to eat my food.

⁵From the sound of my groaning, my bone clings to my flesh.

⁶I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the waste places.

⁷I lie awake, and I have become like a lone little bird on a roof.

⁸All day long my enemies taunt me; those who rave against me swear by me.

⁹For I eat ashes like bread, and I mix my drink with weeping.

¹⁰Because of your indignation and your wrath, for you picked me up and threw me away.

¹¹My days are like a shadow stretched out, and I wither like grass.

¹²But you, Yahweh, dwell forever, and your remembrance is to generation after generation.

¹³You will rise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show it favor, for the appointed time has come.

¹⁴For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and show favor to her dust.

¹⁵And the nations will fear the name of Yahweh, and all the kings of the land will fear your weightiness.

¹⁶For Yahweh has built Zion; he has appeared in his weightiness.

¹⁷He has turned to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.

¹⁸Let this be written for a later generation, and a people yet to be created will praise Yahweh.

¹⁹For Yahweh looked down from the height of his holiness; from heavens to land he looked,

²⁰to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose the sons of death,

²¹to recount in Zion the name of Yahweh, and his praise in Jerusalem,

²²when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.

²³He has humbled my strength on the way; he has cut short my days.

²⁴I say, my God, do not bring me up in the middle of my days; your years are in a generation of generations.

²⁵Of old you founded the land, and the skies are the work of your hands.

²⁶They will perish, but you will stand; all of them will wear out like a garment; like clothing you change them, and they pass away.

²⁷But you are the same, and your years will not come to an end.

²⁸The children of your servants will dwell, and their offspring will be established before you.