What Is the Measure of My Days?
To the choirmaster: to vJeduthun. A Psalm of David.
1 I said, “I will wguard my ways,
that I xmay not sin with my tongue;
I will yguard my mouth with a muzzle,
so long as the wicked are in my presence.”
2 I was zmute and silent;
I held my peace to no avail,
and my distress grew worse.
3 My aheart became hot within me.
As I mused, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:
4 “O Lord, bmake me know my end
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting I am!
5 Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,
and cmy lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely dall mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
6 Surely a man egoes about as a shadow!
Surely for nothing1 they are in turmoil;
man fheaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!
7 “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
gMy hope is in you.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions.
hDo not make me the scorn of the fool!
9 iI am mute; I do not open my mouth,
jfor it is you who have done it.
10 kRemove your stroke from me;
I am spent by the hostility of your hand.
11 When you discipline a man
with lrebukes for sin,
you mconsume like a nmoth what is dear to him;
osurely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah
12 p“Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear to my cry;
hold not your peace at my tears!
For I am qa sojourner with you,
qa guest, like all my fathers.
13 rLook away from me, that I may smile again,
The Broken Flask
1 Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy ca potter’s earthenware dflask, and take some of ethe elders of the people and some of ethe elders of the priests, 2 and go out fto the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. 3 You shall say, g‘Hear the word of the Lord, hO kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that ithe ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 4 jBecause the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; kand because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, 5 land have built the high places of Baal lto burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, mwhich I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— 6 therefore, nbehold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or othe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And in this place pI will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, qand will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. rI will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city sa horror, sa thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. 9 tAnd I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor uin the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’
10 “Then vyou shall break wthe flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, xas one breaks a potter’s vessel, yso that it can never be mended. zMen shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. 12 Thus will I do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city alike Topheth. 13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—ball the houses on whose croofs offerings have been offered dto all the host of heaven, and edrink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled alike the place of Topheth.’”
14 Then Jeremiah came from fTopheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, gand he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, hbecause they have stiffened their neck, irefusing to hear my words.”
