1 H ear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to You.

2 H ide not Your face from me in the day when I am in distress! Incline Your ear to me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily.

3 F or my days consume away like smoke, and my bones burn like a firebrand or like a hearth.

4 M y heart is smitten like grass and withered, so that I forget to eat my food.

5 B y reason of my loud groaning my flesh cleaves to my bones.

6 I am like a melancholy pelican or vulture of the wilderness; I am like a owl of the waste places.

7 I am sleepless and lie awake, like a bereaved sparrow alone on the housetop.

8 M y adversaries taunt and reproach me all the day; and they who are angry with me use my name as a curse.

9 F or I have eaten the ashes as if they were bread and have mingled my drink with weeping

10 B ecause of Your indignation and Your wrath, for You have taken me up and cast me away.

11 M y days are like an evening shadow that stretches out and declines; and I am withered like grass.

12 B ut You, O Lord, are enthroned forever; and the fame of Your name endures to all generations.

13 Y ou will arise and have mercy and loving-kindness for Zion, for it is time to have pity and compassion for her; yes, the set time has come.

14 F or Your servants take pleasure in the stones and show pity for her dust.

15 S o the nations shall fear and worshipfully revere the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth Your glory.

16 W hen the Lord builds up Zion, He will appear in His glory;

17 H e will regard the plea of the destitute and will not despise their prayer.

18 L et this be recorded for the generation yet unborn, that a people yet to be created shall praise the Lord.

19 F or He looked down from the height of His sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth,

20 T o hear the sighing and groaning of the prisoner, to loose those who are appointed to death,

21 S o that men may declare the name of the Lord in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem

22 W hen peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to worship and serve the Lord.

23 H e has afflicted and weakened my strength, humbling and bringing me low in the way; He has shortened my days.

24 I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days, You Whose years continue throughout all generations.

25 A t the beginning You existed and laid the foundations of the earth; the heavens are the work of Your hands.

26 T hey shall perish, but You shall remain and endure; yes, all of them shall wear out and become old like a garment. Like clothing You shall change them, and they shall be changed and pass away.

27 B ut You remain the same, and Your years shall have no end.

28 T he children of Your servants shall dwell safely and continue, and their descendants shall be established before You.