Only in two things spare me, O God, and then I will not hide from your face:

Then call, and I will answer, or I will speak, and you respond to me.

He grows up like a flower and then withers away; he flees like a shadow, and does not remain.

Do you fix your eye on such a one? And do you bring me before you for judgment?

Look away from him and let him desist, until he fulfills his time like a hired man.

My offenses would be sealed up in a bag; you would cover over my sin.

You overpower him once for all, and he departs; you change his appearance and send him away.

“Were you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills?

The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men far older than your father.

Distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him like a king ready to launch an attack,

He will not grow rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the land.

Before his time he will be paid in full, and his branches will not flourish.

Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.

Upright men are appalled at this; the innocent man is troubled with the godless.

He has neither children nor descendants among his people, no survivor in those places he once stayed.

“If I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I receive no answer; I cry for help, but there is no justice.

My guests and my servant girls consider me a stranger; I am a foreigner in their eyes.

Why do you pursue me like God does? Will you never be satiated with my flesh?

“O that my words were written down, O that they were written on a scroll,

And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God,