Who set me in this worm-pit?
Who tumbled me into the dust, to be a neighbor to serpents and a meal for hawks?
Who hurled me down from the high mountain, to be a fellow-traveler of murderers and the godless?
My sin and Thy justice, O Lord. From the foundation of the world my sin stretches forth, and it is swifter than Thy justice.
I count my sins through the whole of my life, and through the life of my father, even back to the beginning of the world, and I say: truly, the name of the Lord's justice is mercy.
I bear upon myself the wounds of my fathers, wounds that I myself prepared while I was in them, and now they have all broken forth upon my soul, like the mottled hide upon a giraffe, like a mantle of evil scorpions that sting me.
Have mercy, O Lord: open the floodgates of the heavenly river of Thy grace, and cleanse me of leprosy. That, free of leprosy, I might dare to utter Thy name before the other lepers, and they not mock me.
Raise me but one head's height above the putrid stench of this worm-pit. That I may breathe in heavenly incense and come to life.
Raise me but one palm tree high, that I too may laugh at the serpents that chase at my heels.
O Lord, if there be even one good deed on my earthly path, for the sake of that one deliver me from traveling in company with murderers and the godless.
O Lord, my Hope in despair.
O Lord, my Strength in weakness.
O Lord, my Light in darkness.
Lay but one finger upon my brow and I shall arise. Or, if I am too filthy for Thy fingers, bind me with one ray from Thy kingdom and lift me — lift me, O my Mercy, out of this worm-pit.