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[A Prayer for the Poor; when he is deeply afflicted, and pours out his supplication before the Lord.]
[1] Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to thee.
[2] Turn not away thy face from me: in the day when I am afflicted, incline thine ear to me: in the day when I shall call upon thee, speedily hear me.
[3] For my days have vanished like smoke, and my bones have been parched like a stick.
[4] I am blighted like grass, and my heart is dried up; for I have forgotten to eat my bread.
[5] By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bone has cleaved to my flesh.
[6] I have become like a pelican of the wilderness;
[7] I have become like an owl in a ruined house. I have watched, and am become as a sparrow dwelling alone on a roof.
[8] All the day long mine enemies have reproached me; and they that praised me have sworn against me.
[9] For I have eaten ashes as it were bread, and mingled my drink with weeping;
[10] because of thine anger and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and dashed me down.
[11] My days have declined like a shadow; and I am withered like grass.
[12] But thou, Lord, endurest for ever, and thy memorial to generation and generation.
[13] Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Sion: for it is time to have mercy upon her, for the set time is come.
[14] For thy servants have taken pleasure in her stones, and they shall pity her dust.
[15] So the nations shall fear thy name, O Lord, and all kings thy glory.
[16] For the Lord shall build up Sion, and shall appear in his glory.
[17] He has had regard to the prayer of the lowly, and has not despised their petition.
[18] Let this be written for another generation; and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord.
[19] For he has looked out from the height of his sanctuary; the Lord looked upon the earth from heaven;
[20] to hear the groaning of the fettered ones, to loosen the sons of the slain;
[21] to proclaim the name of the Lord in Sion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
[22] when the people are gathered together, and the kings, to serve the Lord.
[23] He answered him in the way of his strength: tell me the fewness of my days.
[24] Take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are through all generations.
[25] In the beginning thou, O Lord, didst lay the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.
[26] They shall perish, but thou remainest: and they all shall wax old as a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them, and they shall be changed.
[27] But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
[28] The children of thy servants shall dwell securely, and their seed shall prosper for ever.
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