¹To the Overseer, to Jeduthun.—A Psalm of David. I have said, ‘I observe my ways, Against sinning with my tongue, I keep for my mouth a curb, while the wicked is before me.’

²I was dumb with silence, I kept silent from good, and my pain is excited.

³Hot is my heart within me, In my meditating doth the fire burn, I have spoken with my tongue.

⁴‘Cause me to know, O Jehovah, mine end, And the measure of my days—what it is,’ I know how frail I am.

⁵Lo, handbreadths Thou hast made my days, And mine age is as nothing before Thee, Only, all vanity is every man set up. Selah.

⁶Only, in an image doth each walk habitually, Only, in vain, they are disquieted, He heapeth up and knoweth not who gathereth them.

⁷And, now, what have I expected? O Lord, my hope—it is of Thee.

⁸From all my transgressions deliver me, A reproach of the fool make me not.

⁹I have been dumb, I open not my mouth, Because Thou—Thou hast done it.

¹⁰Turn aside from off me Thy stroke, From the striving of Thy hand I have been consumed.

¹¹With reproofs against iniquity, Thou hast corrected man, And dost waste as a moth his desirableness, Only, vanity is every man. Selah.

¹²Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, And to my cry give ear, Unto my tear be not silent, For a sojourner I am with Thee, A settler like all my fathers.

¹³Look from me, and I brighten up before I go and am not!

Psalm 40

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