39 I said, I will take heed to my ways,
That I sin not with my tongue:
I will keep ^[b]my mouth with a bridle,
While the wicked is before me.
² I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, ^[c]even from good;
And my sorrow was stirred.
³ My heart was hot within me;
While I was musing the fire burned;
Then spake I with my tongue:
⁴ Jehovah, make me to know mine end,
And the measure of my days, what it is;
Let me know how frail I am.
⁵ Behold, thou hast made my days as handbreadths;
And my life-time is as nothing before thee:
Surely every man ^[d]at his best estate is altogether ^[e]vanity. Selah
⁶ Surely every man walketh ^[f]in a vain show;
Surely they are disquieted ^[g]in vain:
He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
⁷ And now, Lord, what wait I for?
My hope is in thee.
⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions:
Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
⁹ I was dumb, I opened not my mouth;
Because thou didst it.
¹⁰ Remove thy stroke away from me:
I am consumed by the ^[h]blow of thy hand.
¹¹ When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity,
Thou ^[i]makest his beauty to consume away like a moth:
Surely every man is ^[j]vanity. Selah
¹² Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, and give ear unto my cry;
Hold not thy peace at my tears:
For I am a stranger with thee,
A sojourner, as all my fathers were.
¹³ Oh ^[k]spare me, that I may ^[l]recover strength,
Before I go hence, and be no more.