⁵ A person’s days are determined;^(A)
    you have decreed the number of his months^(B)
    and have set limits he cannot exceed.^(C)

⁴ “Show me, Lord, my life’s end
    and the number of my days;^(A)
    let me know how fleeting^(B) my life is.^(C)
5 You have made my days^(D) a mere handbreadth;
    the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,^(E)
    even those who seem secure.^[a]

⁶ “Surely everyone goes around^(F) like a mere phantom;^(G)
    in vain they rush about,^(H) heaping up wealth^(I)
    without knowing whose it will finally be.^(J)

⁷ “But now, Lord, what do I look for?
    My hope is in you.^(K)
8 Save me^(L) from all my transgressions;^(M)
    do not make me the scorn^(N) of fools.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;^(A)
    you knit me together^(B) in my mother’s womb.^(C)
14 I praise you^(D) because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,^(E)
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made^(F) in the secret place,
    when I was woven together^(G) in the depths of the earth.^(H)
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained^(I) for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a](J) God!^(K)
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,^(L)
    they would outnumber the grains of sand^(M)—
    when I awake,^(N) I am still with you.