A Prayer of Moshe the man of God. Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

A prayer of Moses, the man [i.e., the prophet] of G d. O L rd, You were an abode [(i.e., a shelter)] to us throughout the generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, and before ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.

Before the mountains were born and the earth and the world were formed, and from [the first] world until [the last] world, You are the Almighty.

Thou turnest man back to dust; and sayst, Return, you children of men.

You turn a man to the crushing point [with afflictions], saying: "Repent, sons of man!"

For a thousand years in Thy sight are but like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.

For a thousand years [(a man's life span at the creation)] in Your eyes are as yesterday's day which has [already passed], and [i.e., in addition to] a watch in the night.

Thou engulfest them; they are like sleepers; they are like the short lived grass in the morning.

Their flooding [i.e., the "snatching away" of those thousand years of a man's life and condensing them to seventy [(see verse 10)] are like a sleep [(The seventy years of the Babylonian exile are like a sleep [viz. Psalms 126:1)]. [One who is born at night] passes away like the grass [at the end of his "dream"].

In the morning it flourishes, and fades; by evening it is withered and dry.

[And if] in the morning he blossoms, he [immediately] passes away; in the evening he withers and dries up.

For we are consumed by Thy anger, and by Thy wrath are we terrified.

[And with all this,] we have been consumed in Your wrath and confounded in Your ire.

Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.

You have placed our transgressions before You [for retribution], [the sins of] our youth before the ["searching"] light of Your countenance.

For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath: we spend our years like a tale that is told.

For all of our days have passed in Your wrath. We have consumed our years as a [fleeting] utterance.

The days of our years are seventy; or if by reason of special strength, eighty years; yet their pride is but trouble and wretchedness; it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

The days of our years [(in our transgressions and in the sins of our youth)] are seventy years, and (if) with increase, eighty years. And all of their "pride" is toil and vanity, for they quickly pass and we are fled [(in the midst of the wrath)].

Who knows the power of Thy anger? even according to Thy fear, so is Thy wrath.

[In these "few days,"] who can [acquire a heart to] know the strength of Your might [and fear You accordingly]? And [You,] as You are fearful, [so is the intensity of] Your wrath!

So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom.

[As in the beginning, so now,] apprise [us of the increase of] the number of our days, so that we may bring [to our days] a heart of wisdom.

Return, O Lord, how long? and relent concerning Thy servants.

Turn, O L rd [from Your wrath]. How long [will You rage]? And repent Yourself [to think favorably] of Your servants.

O satisfy us in the morning with Thy steadfast love; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Sate us in the "morning" [of the redemption] with Your lovingkindness, and we will sing [Your praises] and rejoice in all [of the afflictions that we suffered in] our [dark] days.

Make us glad according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us, and the years in which we have seen evil.

Cause us to rejoice [(in the days of the Messiah)] as [the number of] the days of our affliction, as [the number of] years in which we saw evil.

Let Thy work appear to Thy servants, and Thy glory to their children.

May Your acts [of redemption] be witnessed by Your servants, and [let] Your glory [repose] upon their children.

And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish the work of our hands upon us; O prosper it, the work of our hands.

And may the pleasantness of the L rd our G d [(His shechinah and His consolations)] be upon us. And establish the work of our hands [(the tabernacle)] upon us [(that the shechinah reside therein)], and the work of our hands [(in our daily lives)] establish it [(that blessing repose upon it)].