The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 <A Prayer of the man who is in trouble, when he is overcome, and puts his grief before the Lord.> Give ear to my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to you.
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Listen to my prayer, O Lord, and hear my cry for help!
2 Let not your face be veiled from me in the day of my trouble; give ear to me, and let my cry be answered quickly.
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When I am in trouble, don't turn away from me! Listen to me, and answer me quickly when I call!
3 My days are wasted like smoke, and my bones are burned up as in a fire.
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My life is disappearing like smoke; my body is burning like fire.
4 My heart is broken; it has become dry and dead like grass, so that I give no thought to food.
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I am beaten down like dry grass; I have lost my desire for food.
5 Because of the voice of my sorrow, my flesh is wasted to the bone.
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I groan aloud; I am nothing but skin and bones.
6 I am like a bird living by itself in the waste places; like the night-bird in a waste of sand.
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I am like a wild bird in the desert, like an owl in abandoned ruins.
7 I keep watch like a bird by itself on the house-top.
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I lie awake; I am like a lonely bird on a housetop.
8 My haters say evil of me all day; those who are violent against me make use of my name as a curse.
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All day long my enemies insult me; those who mock me use my name in cursing.
9 I have had dust for bread and my drink has been mixed with weeping:
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Because of your anger and fury, ashes are my food, and my tears are mixed with my drink. You picked me up and threw me away.
10 Because of your passion and your wrath, for I have been lifted up and then made low by you.
11 My days are like a shade which is stretched out; I am dry like the grass.
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My life is like the evening shadows; I am like dry grass.
12 But you, O Lord, are eternal; and your name will never come to an end.
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But you, O Lord, are king forever; all generations will remember you.
13 You will again get up and have mercy on Zion: for the time has come for her to be comforted.
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You will rise and take pity on Zion; the time has come to have mercy on her; this is the right time.
14 For your servants take pleasure in her stones, looking with love on her dust.
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Your servants love her, even though she is destroyed; they have pity on her, even though she is in ruins.
15 So the nations will give honour to the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will be in fear of his glory:
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The nations will fear the Lord; all the kings of the earth will fear his power.
16 When the Lord has put up the walls of Zion, and has been been in his glory;
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When the Lord rebuilds Zion, he will reveal his greatness.
17 When he has given ear to the prayer of the poor, and has not put his request on one side.
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He will hear his forsaken people and listen to their prayer.
18 This will be put in writing for the coming generation, and the people of the future will give praise to the Lord.
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Write down for the coming generation what the Lord has done, so that people not yet born will praise him.
19 For from his holy place the Lord has seen, looking down on the earth from heaven;
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The Lord looked down from his holy place on high, he looked down from heaven to earth.
20 Hearing the cry of the prisoner, making free those for whom death is ordered;
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He heard the groans of prisoners and set free those who were condemned to die.
21 So that they may give out the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
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And so his name will be proclaimed in Zion, and he will be praised in Jerusalem
22 When the peoples are come together, and the kingdoms, to give worship to the Lord.
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when nations and kingdoms come together and worship the Lord.
23 He has taken my strength from me in the way; he has made short my days.
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The Lord has made me weak while I am still young; he has shortened my life.
24 I will say, O my God, take me not away before my time; your years go on through all generations:
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O God, do not take me away now before I grow old. O Lord, you live forever;
25 In the past you put the earth on its base, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
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long ago you created the earth, and with your own hands you made the heavens.
26 They will come to an end, but you will still go on; they all will become old like a coat, and like a robe they will be changed:
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They will disappear, but you will remain; they will all wear out like clothes. You will discard them like clothes, and they will vanish.
27 But you are the unchanging One, and your years will have no end.
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But you are always the same, and your life never ends.
28 The children of your servants will have a safe resting-place, and their seed will be ever before you.
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Our children will live in safety, and under your protection their descendants will be secure.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.