1 To 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.`
2 I was dumb with silence, I kept silent from good, and my pain is excited.
3 Hot 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.
5 Lo, handbreadths Thou hast made my days, And mine age is as nothing before Thee, Only, all vanity is every man set up. Selah.
6 Only, in an image doth each walk habitually, Only, in vain, they are disquieted, He heapeth up and knoweth not who gathereth them.
7 And, now, what have I expected? O Lord, my hope -- it is of Thee.
8 From all my transgressions deliver me, A reproach of the fool make me not.
9 I have been dumb, I open not my mouth, Because Thou -- Thou hast done it.
10 Turn aside from off me Thy stroke, From the striving of Thy hand I have been consumed.
11 With reproofs against iniquity, Thou hast corrected man, And dost waste as a moth his desirableness, Only, vanity is every man. Selah.
12 Hear 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.
13 Look from me, and I brighten up before I go and am not!