(39) For the end, a Song of David, to Idithun. 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.

I was dumb, and humbled myself, and kept silence from good [words]; and my grief was renewed.

My heart grew hot within me, and a fire would kindle in my meditation: I spoke with my tongue,

O Lord, make me to know my end, and the number of my days, what it is; that I may know what I lack.

Behold, you have made my days old; and my existence [is] as nothing before you: nay, every man living [is] altogether vanity. Pause.

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.

And now what [is] my expectation? [is it] not the Lord? and my ground [of hope] is with you. Pause.

Deliver me from all my transgressions: you have made me a reproach to the foolish.

I was dumb, and opened not my mouth; for you are he that made me.

Remove your scourges from me: I have fainted by reason of the strength of your hand.

You chasten man with rebukes for iniquity, and you make his life to consume away like a spider's web; nay, every man is disquieted in vain. Pause.

O Lord, listen 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].

Spare me, that I may be refreshed, before I depart, and be no more.