A Prayer of Moses the man of God.
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place
In all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever thou {Hebrew: gavest birth to.}hadst formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Thou turnest man to {Or, dust Hebrew: crushing.}destruction,
And sayest, Return, ye children of men.
For a thousand years in thy sight
Are but as yesterday {Or, when it passeth}when it is past,
And as a watch in the night.
Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep:
In the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up;
In the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
For we are consumed in thine anger,
And in thy wrath are we troubled.
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee,
Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
For all our days are passed away in thy wrath:
We bring our years to an end as {Or, a sound}a sigh.
The days of our years are threescore years and ten,
Or even by reason of strength fourscore years;
Yet is their pride but labor and sorrow;
For it is soon gone, and we fly away.
Who knoweth the power of thine anger,
And thy wrath according to the fear that is due unto thee?
So teach us to number our days,
That we may get us a heart of wisdom.
Return, O Jehovah; how long?
And let it repent thee concerning thy servants.
Oh satisfy us in the morning with thy lovingkindness,
That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us,
And the years wherein we have seen evil.
Let thy work appear unto thy servants,
And thy glory upon their children.
And let the {Or, beauty}favor of the Lord our God be upon us;
And establish thou the work of our hands upon us;
Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
Querverweise zu Psalm 90,10 Ps 90,10
And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my {Or, sojournings}pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years: few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their {Or, sojournings}pilgrimage.
I am this day fourscore years old: can I discern between good and bad? can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? wherefore then should thy servant be yet a burden unto my lord the king?
And he remembered that they were but flesh,A wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat.
But man dieth, and is laid low:Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;
in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the {Or, grinding women}grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows shall be darkened,
and the doors shall be shut in the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;
yea, they shall be afraid {Or, of danger from on high}of that which is high, and terrors shall be in the way; and the almond-tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper {Or, shall drag itself along}shall be a burden, and {Or, the caperberry}desire shall {Or, burst}fail; because man goeth to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets:
before the silver cord is {Or, snapped asunder}loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,
and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.
They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone; {Or, And when they are &c.}Yea, they are brought low, they are {Or, gather in}taken out of the way as all others,And are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me as a shepherd's tent:I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life; he will cut me off from the {Hebrew: thrum.}loom:From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
But God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night {Greek: they require thy soul.}is thy {Or, life}soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be?
whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.