¹I said, “I will guard my ways,[#1Ki 2:4]

lest I sin with my tongue;

I will keep a muzzle on my mouth

while the wicked are before me.”

²I was mute in silence;

I held my peace to no avail,

but my anguish grew worse.

³My heart was hot within me.

While I was musing, the fire burned;

then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴“Lord , let me know my end,

and what is the measure of my days,

that I may know how frail I am.

⁵Behold, You have made my days as a few handbreadths,

and my age is as nothing before You.

Surely every man at his best is as a mere breath.” Selah

⁶Surely every man walks around like a shadow;

surely they make an uproar in vain;

he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them.

⁷Now, O Lord, what do I wait for?

My hope is in You.

⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions;[#Ps 51:14]

do not make me the reproach of the foolish.

⁹I was silent; I did not open my mouth,[#Job 2:10]

because it was You who did it.

¹⁰Remove Your stroke from me;[#Job 9:34; 13:21]

I am coming to an end by the hostility of Your hand.

¹¹When with rebukes You correct man for sin,

You consume like a moth what is precious to him;

surely every man is mere vapor. Selah

¹²Hear my prayer, O Lord ,

and give ear to my cry;

do not be silent at my tears.

For I am a stranger with You,

and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

¹³Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may become cheerful again,

before I go away and am no more.