Do Not Hide Your Face from Me

¹O Yahweh, hear my prayer!

And let my cry for help come to You.

²Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress;

Incline Your ear to me;

In the day when I call answer me quickly.

³For my days have vanished in smoke,[#102:3 Or finished]

And my bones have been scorched like a hearth.

⁴My heart has been stricken like grass and it has dried up,[#102:4 Lit vegetation]

Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.

⁵Because of the sound of my groaning

My bones cling to my flesh.

⁶I resemble a pelican of the wilderness;

I have become like an owl of the waste places.

⁷I lie awake,

I have become like a lonely bird on a roof.

⁸¶My enemies have reproached me all day long;

Those who ridicule me swear against me.

⁹For I have eaten ashes like bread

And mixed my drinks with weeping

¹⁰Because of Your indignation and Your wrath,

For You have lifted me up and cast me away.

¹¹My days are like an outstretched shadow,

And as for me, I dry up like grass.

¹²¶But You, O Yahweh, abide forever,[#102:12 Or sit enthroned]

And the remembrance of Your name from generation to generation.

¹³You will arise and have compassion on Zion—

For it is time to be gracious to it,

For the appointed time has come.

¹⁴For Your slaves find pleasure in its stones[#102:14 Or have found]

And show grace to its dust—

¹⁵So the nations will fear the name of Yahweh[#102:15 Or And; #102:15 Or Gentiles]

And all the kings of the earth Your glory.

¹⁶For Yahweh has built up Zion;

He has appeared in His glory.

¹⁷He has turned toward the prayer of the destitute[#102:17 Or naked]

And has not despised their prayer.

¹⁸¶This will be written for the generation to come,[#102:18 Or Let this be written]

And a people yet to be created will praise Yah.

¹⁹For He looked down from His holy height;

From heaven Yahweh gazed upon the earth,

²⁰To hear the groaning of the prisoner,

To set free those who were doomed to death,

²¹To recount the name of Yahweh in Zion

And His praise in Jerusalem,

²²When the peoples are gathered together,

And the kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.

²³¶He has afflicted my strength in the way;

He has shortened my days.

²⁴I say, “O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days,[#102:24 Lit half]

Your years are from generation to all generations.

²⁵“Of old You founded the earth,

And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

²⁶“Even they will perish, but You will remain;[#102:26 Lit They themselves]

And all of them will wear out like a garment;

Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.

²⁷“But You are the same,[#102:27 Lit He]

And Your years will not come to an end.

²⁸“The children of Your slaves will dwell securely ,

And their seed will be established before You.”