The Message Bible MSG
World English Bible WEB
1 God, listen! Listen to my prayer, listen to the pain in my cries.
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<<A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before Yahweh.>> Hear my prayer, Yahweh! Let my cry come to you.
2 Don't turn your back on me just when I need you so desperately. Pay attention! This is a cry for help! And hurry - this can't wait!
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Don't hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call.
3 I'm wasting away to nothing, I'm burning up with fever.
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For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a firebrand.
4 I'm a ghost of my former self, half-consumed already by terminal illness.
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My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, For I forget to eat my bread.
5 My jaws ache from gritting my teeth; I'm nothing but skin and bones.
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By reason of the voice of my groaning, My bones stick to my skin.
6 I'm like a buzzard in the desert, a crow perched on the rubble.
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I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.
7 Insomniac, I twitter away, mournful as a sparrow in the gutter.
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I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.
8 All day long my enemies taunt me, while others just curse.
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My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse.
9 They bring in meals - casseroles of ashes! I draw drink from a barrel of my tears.
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For I have eaten ashes like bread, And mixed my drink with tears,
10 And all because of your furious anger; you swept me up and threw me out.
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Because of your indignation and your wrath, For you have taken me up, and thrown me away.
11 There's nothing left of me - a withered weed, swept clean from the path.
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My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.
12 Yet you, God, are sovereign still, always and ever sovereign.
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But you, Yahweh, will abide forever; Your renown endures to all generations.
13 You'll get up from your throne and help Zion - it's time for compassionate help.
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You will arise and have mercy on Zion; For it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come.
14 Oh, how your servants love this city's rubble and weep with compassion over its dust!
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For your servants take pleasure in her stones, And have pity on her dust.
15 The godless nations will sit up and take notice - see your glory, worship your name -
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So the nations will fear the name of Yahweh; All the kings of the earth your glory.
16 When God rebuilds Zion, when he shows up in all his glory,
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For Yahweh has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory.
17 When he attends to the prayer of the wretched. He won't dismiss their prayer.
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He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, And has not despised their prayer.
18 Write this down for the next generation so people not yet born will praise God:
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This will be written for the generation to come. A people which will be created will praise Yah.
19 "God looked out from his high holy place; from heaven he surveyed the earth.
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For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, Yahweh saw the earth;
20 He listened to the groans of the doomed, he opened the doors of their death cells."
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To hear the groans of the prisoner; To free those who are condemned to death;
21 Write it so the story can be told in Zion, so God's praise will be sung in Jerusalem's streets
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That men may declare the name of Yahweh in Zion, And his praise in Jerusalem;
22 And wherever people gather together along with their rulers to worship him.
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When the peoples are gathered together, The kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.
23 God sovereignly brought me to my knees, he cut me down in my prime.
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He weakened my strength along the course. He shortened my days.
24 "Oh, don't," I prayed, "please don't let me die. You have more years than you know what to do with!
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I said, "My God, don't take me away in the midst of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.
25 You laid earth's foundations a long time ago, and handcrafted the very heavens;
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Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands.
26 You'll still be around when they're long gone, threadbare and discarded like an old suit of clothes. You'll throw them away like a worn-out coat,
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They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed.
27 but year after year you're as good as new.
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But you are the same. Your years will have no end.
28 Your servants' children will have a good place to live and their children will be at home with you."
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The children of your servants will continue. Their seed will be established before you."