The Prayer of the Afflicted

1(101:1) A Prayer for the Poor; when he is deeply afflicted, and pours out his supplication before the Lord. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to thee.

2(101:2) 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(101:3) For my days have vanished like smoke, and my bones have been parched like a stick.

4(101:4) I am blighted like grass, and my heart is dried up; for I have forgotten to eat my bread.

5(101:5) By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bone has cleaved to my flesh.

6(101:6) I have become like a pelican of the wilderness;

7(101:7) 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(101:8) All the day long mine enemies have reproached me; and they that praised me have sworn against me.

9(101:9) For I have eaten ashes as it were bread, and mingled my drink with weeping;

10(101:10) because of thine anger and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and dashed me down.

11(101:11) My days have declined like a shadow; and I am withered like grass.

12(101:12) But thou, Lord, endurest for ever, and thy memorial to generation and generation.

13(101:13) Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Sion: for it is time to have mercy upon her, for the set time is come.

14(101:14) For thy servants have taken pleasure in her stones, and they shall pity her dust.

15(101:15) So the nations shall fear thy name, O Lord, and all kings thy glory.

16(101:16) For the Lord shall build up Sion, and shall appear in his glory.

17(101:17) He has had regard to the prayer of the lowly, and has not despised their petition.

18(101:18) Let this be written for another generation; and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord.

19(101:19) For he has looked out from the height of his sanctuary; the Lord looked upon the earth from heaven;

20(101:20) to hear the groaning of the fettered ones, to loosen the sons of the slain;

21(101:21) to proclaim the name of the Lord in Sion, and his praise in Jerusalem;

22(101:22) when the people are gathered together, and the kings, to serve the Lord.

23(101:23) He answered him in the way of his strength: tell me the fewness of my days.

24(101:24) Take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are through all generations.

25(101:25) In the beginning thou, O Lord, didst lay the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands.

26(101:26) 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(101:27) But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

28(101:28) The children of thy servants shall dwell securely, and their seed shall prosper for ever.