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Psalm 13

Six verses that begin with How long and end in trust. It is among the psalms customarily said for a person who is ill, and it is short enough to be said at a bedside.

Every text below comes from the edition named under it and was checked twice, independently, before it appeared. Neither check was a person. That is a claim about wording only: nothing here is selected or endorsed for a particular situation, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed it. Older spelling is kept as the edition prints it.

Psalm 13 (JPS 1917)

Six verses that begin with How long and end in trust. It is among the psalms customarily said for a person who is ill, and it is short enough to be said at a bedside.

English · The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text (JPS), 1917

For the Leader. A Psalm of David.

How long, O LORD, wilt Thou forget me for ever?

How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart by day?

How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

Behold Thou, and answer me, O LORD my God;

Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Lest mine enemy say: 'I have prevailed against him';

Lest mine adversaries rejoice when I am moved.

But as for me, in Thy mercy do I trust;

My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation.

I will sing unto the LORD,

Because He hath dealt bountifully with me.

Jewish Publication Society of America, 1917. Published 1917, before 1929, US public domain. Retrieved and verified 2026-09-17. Source

Hebrew · Tanach with Nikkud, a digital edition of the Leningrad Codex, 2026

לַמְנַצֵּחַ מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד׃

עַד־אָנָה יְהוָה תִּשְׁכָּחֵנִי נֶצַח עַד־אָנָה תַּסְתִּיר אֶת־פָּנֶיךָ מִמֶּנִּי׃

עַד־אָנָה אָשִׁית עֵצוֹת בְּנַפְשִׁי יָגוֹן בִּלְבָבִי יוֹמָם עַד־אָנָה יָרוּם אֹיְבִי עָלָי׃

הַבִּיטָה עֲנֵנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהָי הָאִירָה עֵינַי פֶּן־אִישַׁן הַמָּוֶת׃

פֶּן־יֹאמַר אֹיְבִי יְכָלְתִּיו צָרַי יָגִילוּ כִּי אֶמּוֹט׃

וַאֲנִי בְּחַסְדְּךָ בָטַחְתִּי יָגֵל לִבִּי בִּישׁוּעָתֶךָ אָשִׁירָה לַיהוָה כִּי גָמַל עָלָי׃

Sefaria, from the Unicode/XML Leningrad Codex at tanach.us, 2026. Tanach.us states that all biblical Hebrew text on its site may be viewed or copied without restriction, and Sefaria labels this version Public Domain. Retrieved and verified 2026-09-17. Source

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How this text was verified · How the Hebrew was verified

Wording and scope vary between editions and between communities, so each edition here is named and this entry makes no claim about which form is right in a given setting. The English keeps the line breaks of one digitisation of the 1917 volume. The second, which it was checked against, stores each verse as running text, so it confirms the words and cannot confirm where a line ends.

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