³ For my days pass away like smoke,
    and my bones burn like a furnace.
⁴ My heart is smitten like grass, and withered;
    I forget to eat my bread.
⁵ Because of my loud groaning
    my bones cleave to my flesh.
⁶ I am like a vulture^[a] of the wilderness,
    like an owl of the waste places;
⁷ I lie awake,
    I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.
⁸ All the day my enemies taunt me,
    those who deride me use my name for a curse.
⁹ For I eat ashes like bread,
    and mingle tears with my drink,
¹⁰ because of thy indignation and anger;
    for thou hast taken me up and thrown me away.
¹¹ My days are like an evening shadow;
    I wither away like grass.

¹² But thou, O Lord, art enthroned for ever;
    thy name endures to all generations.
¹³ Thou wilt arise and have pity on Zion;
    it is the time to favor her;
    the appointed time has come.
¹⁴ For thy servants hold her stones dear,
    and have pity on her dust.
¹⁵ The nations will fear the name of the Lord,
    and all the kings of the earth thy glory.
¹⁶ For the Lord will build up Zion,
    he will appear in his glory;
¹⁷ he will regard the prayer of the destitute,
    and will not despise their supplication.

¹⁸ Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
    so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord:
¹⁹ that he looked down from his holy height,
    from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
²⁰ to hear the groans of the prisoners,
    to set free those who were doomed to die;
²¹ that men may declare in Zion the name of the Lord,
    and in Jerusalem his praise,
²² when peoples gather together,
    and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.

²³ He has broken my strength in midcourse;
    he has shortened my days.
²⁴ “O my God,” I say, “take me not hence
    in the midst of my days,
thou whose years endure
    throughout all generations!”

²⁵ Of old thou didst lay the foundation of the earth,
    and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
²⁶ They will perish, but thou dost endure;
    they will all wear out like a garment.
Thou changest them like raiment, and they pass away;
²⁷     but thou art the same, and thy years have no end.
²⁸ The children of thy servants shall dwell secure;
    their posterity shall be established before thee.