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[a]“O Lord, let me know my end
    and the number of days left to me;
    show me how fleeting my life is.
You have allotted me a short span of days;
    my life is as nothing in your sight;
    human existence is a mere breath. Selah
Humans are nothing but a passing shadow;
    the riches they amass are a mere breath,
    and they do not know who will enjoy them.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 39:5 The psalmist begs God to help him know and accept the brevity and vanity of life, a brevity and vanity stressed in other psalms (see Pss 62:10; 73:19; 90:10-11) and in Isa 40:17.
  2. Psalm 39:7 This passage is reminiscent of Ecclesiastes.