Yahweh, Make Me Know My End

¹I said, “I will keep watch over my ways

That I may not sin with my tongue;

I will keep watch over my mouth as with a muzzle

While the wicked are in my presence.”

²I was mute with silence,

I even kept silent from speaking good,

And my anguish grew worse.

³My heart was hot within me,

While I meditated the fire was burning;

Then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴“Yahweh, cause me to know my end

And what is the extent of my days;

Let me know how transient I am.

⁵“Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths,[#39:5 A handbreadth was approx. 3 in. or 7.6 cm]

And my lifetime as nothing before You;

Surely every man, even standing firm, is altogether vanity. Selah.

⁶“Surely every man walks about as a shadow;[#39:6 Lit an image]

Surely they make an uproar in vain;

He piles up riches and does not know who will gather them.

⁷¶“And now, Lord, what do I hope in?

My expectation is in You.

⁸“Deliver me from all my transgressions;

Make me not the reproach of the wicked fool.

⁹“I have become mute, I do not open my mouth,

Because it is You who have done it .

¹⁰“Remove Your plague from me;

Because of the opposition of Your hand I am wasting away.

¹¹“With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity;

You consume as a moth what is precious to him;

Surely every man is vanity. Selah.

¹²¶“Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, and give ear to my cry for help;

Do not be silent at my tears;

For I am a sojourner with You,

A foreign resident like all my fathers.

¹³“Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again[#39:13 Or become cheerful]

Before I go and am no more.”