1  The prayer of a poor man, when he was anguished, and shedded out his speech before the Lord. Lord, hear thou my prayer; and my cry come to thee.

2 Turn not away thy face from me; in whatever day I am troubled, bow down thine ear to me. In whatever day I shall inwardly call thee; hear thou me swiftly.

3 For my days have failed as smoke; and my bones have dried up as croutons or cracklings, either leavings of frying.

4 I am smitten as hay, and mine heart dried up; for I have forgotten to eat my bread.

5 Of the voice of my wailing; my bone cleaved to my flesh.

6 I am made like a pelican of wilderness; I am made as a night crow in an house.

7 I waked; and I am made as a solitary sparrow in the roof.

8 All day mine enemies despised me; and they that praised me swore against me.

9 For I ate ashes as bread; and I meddled [or mingled] my drink with weeping.

10 From the face of the ire of thine indignation; for thou raising me [up] hast hurtled me down.

11 My days bowed away as a shadow; and I waxed dry as hay.

12 But, Lord, thou dwellest without end; and thy memorial in generation and into generation.

13 Lord, thou rising up, shalt have mercy on Zion; for the time to have mercy thereof cometh, for the time cometh.

14 For the stones thereof pleased thy servants; and they shall have mercy on the land thereof.

15 And, Lord, heathen men shall dread thy name; and all kings of earth shall dread thy glory.

16 For the Lord hath built [up] Zion; and he shall be seen in his glory.

17 He beheld on the prayer of meek men; and he despised not the prayer of them.

18 Be these things written in another generation; and the people that shall be made shall praise the Lord.

19 For he beheld from his high holy place; the Lord looked from heaven into earth.

20 For to hear the wailings of fettered men; and for to unbind the sons of slain men.

21 That they tell in Zion the name of the Lord; and his praising in Jerusalem.

22 In gathering together peoples into one; and kings, that they serve the Lord.

23 It answered to him in the way of his virtue; Tell thou to me the few-ness of my days.

24 Again-call thou not me in the middle of my days; thy years be in generation and into generation.

25 Lord, thou foundedest the earth in the beginning; and heavens be the works of thine hands.

26 Those shall perish, but thou dwellest perfectly; and all shall wax eld [or old] as a cloth. And thou shalt change them as a covering, and those shall be changed;

27 but thou art the same thyself, and thy years shall not fail.

28 The sons of thy servants shall dwell; and the seed of them shall be dressed into the world.