“What are mere mortals that you should think about them,
    or a son of man^[a] that you should care for him?

⁴ what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
    human beings that you should care for them?^[a]
5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God^[b]
    and crowned them^[c] with glory and honor.
⁶ You gave them charge of everything you made,
    putting all things under their authority—
⁷ the flocks and the herds
    and all the wild animals,
⁸ the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
    and everything that swims the ocean currents.

³ O Lord, what are human beings that you should notice them,
    mere mortals that you should think about them?

¹⁷ “What are people, that you should make so much of us,
    that you should think of us so often?
¹⁸ For you examine us every morning
    and test us every moment.

¹² “I, yes I, am the one who comforts you.
    So why are you afraid of mere humans,
    who wither like the grass and disappear?

⁶ In comparison, people are maggots;
    we mortals are mere worms.”

¹⁴ Can any mortal be pure?
    Can anyone born of a woman be just?