I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked man is before me.
I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good, and my sorrow was stirred.
My heart was hot within me. While I was musing the fire burned. [Then] I spoke with my tongue:
LORD, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is. Let me know how frail I am.
Behold, thou have made my days [as] handbreadths, and my life-time is as nothing before thee. Surely every man at his best condition is altogether vanity. Selah.
Surely every man walks in a shadow. Surely they are disquieted in vain. He heaps up, and knows not who shall gather them.
And now, LORD, what do I wait for? My hope is in thee.
Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
I was mute. I opened not my mouth, because thou did it.
Remove thy stroke away from me. I am consumed by the blow of thy hand.
When thou have corrected man with rebukes for iniquity, thou make his beauty to disintegrate like a moth. Surely every man is vanity. Selah.
Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry. Keep not silent at my tears, for I am a stranger with thee, a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
O spare me, that I may recover strength before I go from here, and be no more.