Psalms, Chapter 39

1. I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I set a guard on my mouth, while the sinner stood in my presence.    2. I was dumb, and humbled myself, and kept silence from good [words]; and my grief was renewed.    3. My heart grew hot within me, and a fire would kindle in my meditation: I spoke with my tongue,    4. O Lord, make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, what it is; that I may know what I lack.    5. Behold, thou hast made my days old; and my existence [is] as nothing before thee: nay, every man living [is] altogether vanity. Pause.    6. Surely man walks in a shadow; nay, he is disquieted in vain: he lays up treasures, and knows not for whom he shall gather them.    7. And now what [is] my expectation? [is it] not the Lord? and my ground [of hope] is with thee. Pause.    8. Deliver me from all my transgressions: thou hast made me a reproach to the foolish.    9. I was dumb, and opened not my mouth; for thou art he that made me.    10. Remove thy scourges from me: I have fainted by reason of the strength of thine hand.    11. Thou chastenest man with rebukes for iniquity, and thou makest his life to consume away like a spider's web; nay, every man is disquieted in vain. Pause.    12. O Lord, hearken to my prayer and my supplication: attend to my tears: be not silent, for I am a sojourner in the land, and a stranger, as all my fathers [were].    13. Spare me, that I may be refreshed, before I depart, and be no more.