13. All in vain have I kept my heart cleanand washed my hands in innocence.
14. For all the day long I have been strickenand rebuked every morning.
15. If I had said, “I will speak thus,”I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16. But when I thought how to understand this,it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17. until I went into the sanctuary of God;then I discerned their end.
18. Truly you set them in slippery places;you make them fall to ruin.
19. How they are destroyed in a moment,swept away utterly by terrors!
20. Like a dream when one awakes,O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21. When my soul was embittered,when I was pricked in heart,
22. I was brutish and ignorant;I was like a beast toward you.
23. Nevertheless, I am continually with you;you hold my right hand.
24. You guide me with your counsel,and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25. Whom have I in heaven but you?And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.