The Book of Psalms — Liber Psalmorum
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Psalm 38
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Douay-Rheims><Vulgate><Knox Bible
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Unto the end, for Idithun himself, a canticle of David.
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In finem, ipsi Idithun. Canticum David.
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(To the choir-master, Idithun. A psalm. Of David.)
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I said: I will take heed to my ways: that I sin not with my tongue. I have set a guard to my mouth, when the sinner stood against me.
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Dixi: Custodiam vias meas: ut non delinquam in lingua mea. Posui ori meo custodiam, cum consisteret peccator adversum me.
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It was my resolve to live watchfully, and never use my tongue amiss; still, while I was in the presence of sinners, I kept my mouth gagged,
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I was dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence from good things: and my sorrow was renewed.
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Obmutui, et humiliatus sum, et silui a bonis; et dolor meus renovatus est.
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dumb and patient, impotent for good. But indignation came back,
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My heart grew hot within me: and in my meditation a fire shall flame out.
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Concaluit cor meum intra me; et in meditatione mea exardescet ignis.
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and my heart burned within me, the fire kindled by my thoughts,
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I spoke with my tongue: O Lord, make me know my end. And what is the number of my days: that I may know what is wanting to me.
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Locutus sum in lingua mea: Notum fac mihi, Domine, finem meum, et numerum dierum meorum quis est, ut sciam quid desit mihi.
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so that at last I kept silence no longer.Lord, warn me of my end, and how few my days are; teach me to know my own insufficiency.
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Behold thou hast made my days measurable: and my substance is as nothing before thee. And indeed all things are vanity: every man living.
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Ecce mensurabiles posuisti dies meos, et substantia mea tamquam nihilum ante te. Verumtamen universa vanitas, omnis homo vivens.
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See how thou hast measured my years with a brief span, how my life is nothing in thy reckoning! Nay, what is any man living but a breath that passes?
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Surely man passeth as an image: yea, and he is disquieted in vain. He storeth up: and he knoweth not for whom he shall gather these things.
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Verumtamen in imagine pertransit homo; sed et frustra conturbatur: thesaurizat, et ignorat cui congregabit ea.
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Truly man walks the world like a shadow; with what vain anxiety he hoards up riches, when he cannot tell who will have the counting of them!
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And now what is my hope? is it not the Lord? and my substance is with thee.
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Et nunc quæ est exspectatio mea: nonne Dominus? et substantia mea apud te est.
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What hope then is mine, Lord? In thee alone I trust.
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Deliver thou me from all my iniquities: thou hast made me a reproach to the fool.
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Ab omnibus iniquitatibus meis erue me: opprobrium insipienti dedisti me.
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Clear me of that manifold guilt which makes me the laughing-stock of fools,
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I was dumb, and I opened not my mouth, because thou hast done it.
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Obmutui, et non aperui os meum, quoniam tu fecisti;
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tongue-tied and uncomplaining, because I know that my troubles come from thee;
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Remove thy scourges from me. The strength of thy hand hath made me faint in rebukes:
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amove a me plagas tuas.
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spare me this punishment; I faint under thy powerful hand.
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thou hast corrected man for iniquity. And thou hast made his soul to waste away like a spider: surely in vain is any man disquieted.
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A fortitudine manus tuæ ego defeci in increpationibus: propter iniquitatem corripuisti hominem. Et tabescere fecisti sicut araneam animam ejus: verumtamen vane conturbatur omnis homo.
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When thou dost chasten man to punish his sins, gone is all he loved, as if the moth had fretted it away; a breath that passes, and no more.
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Hear my prayer, O Lord, and my supplication: give ear to my tears. Be not silent: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner as all my fathers were.
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Exaudi orationem meam, Domine, et deprecationem meam; auribus percipe lacrimas meas. Ne sileas, quoniam advena ego sum apud te, et peregrinus sicut omnes patres mei.
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Listen, Lord, to my prayer, let my cry reach thy hearing, and my tears win answer. What am I in thy sight but a passer-by, a wanderer, as all my fathers were?
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O forgive me, that I may be refreshed, before I go hence, and be no more.
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Remitte mihi, ut refrigerer priusquam abeam et amplius non ero.
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Thy frown relax, give me some breath of comfort, before I go away and am known no more.