20  Only grant me two things,

then I will not ^vhide myself from your face:

21  ^wwithdraw your hand far from me,

and let not ^xdread of you terrify me.

22  ^yThen call, and I will answer;

or let me speak, and you reply to me.

23  How many are my iniquities and my sins?

^zMake me know my transgression and my sin.

24  Why ^ado you hide your face

and ^bcount me as your enemy?

7  “For there is hope for a tree,

if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,

and that its shoots will not cease.

8  Though its root grow old in the earth,

and ^xits stump die in the soil,

9  yet at the scent of water it will bud

and put out ^ybranches like a young plant.

10  But a man dies and is laid low;

man breathes his last, and ^zwhere is he?

11  ^aAs waters fail from a lake

and a river wastes away and dries up,

12  so a man lies down and rises not again;

till ^bthe heavens are no more he will not awake

or be ^croused out of his sleep.

13  Oh that you would ^dhide me in ^eSheol,

that you would ^dconceal me ^funtil your wrath be past,

that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!

14  If a man dies, shall he live again?

All the days of my ^gservice I would ^hwait,

till my renewal¹ should come.

15  You would ⁱcall, and I would answer you;

you would long for the ^jwork of your hands.

16  For then you would ^knumber my steps;

you would not keep ^lwatch over my sin;

17  my transgression would be ^msealed up in a bag,

and you would cover over my iniquity.