Translations
How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
How long must I wrestle with my own counsel, grief gnawing at my heart all the day? How long will my enemy tower over me?
How long must I carry on wrestling with my own thoughts, sorrow flooding my heart day after day? How long will my enemy stand triumphant over me?
How long must I wrestle in my soul, with sorrow in my heart each day? How long will my enemy dominate me?
Footnotes
Ashit etsot benafshy (אָשִׁית עֵצוֹת בְּנַפְשִׁי) is literally "I will set counsels in my nephesh"—the image of a person trapped in exhausting inner deliberation, turning the problem over and over for lack of any divine answer. Nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ) is not simply "soul" in a Greek-dualist sense but the whole pulsing inner self—throat, breath, craving, life-force. F.O.G. renders it implicitly through "wrestle with my own counsel" to preserve the embodied quality; F.O.G.M. uses "thoughts" for accessibility. Yagon (יָגוֹן) denotes a deep, persistent grief or anguish—not a passing sadness—and yomam (יוֹמָם, "all the day") stresses its relentless daily weight. F.O.G. uses "gnawing" to capture the consuming, unrelenting character of yagon; F.O.G.M. uses "flooding" to evoke the overwhelming, daily inundation. The final 'ad-anah of the verse—"how long will my enemy tower over me?"—shifts the complaint outward: the inner anguish is now publicly visible, a social shame compounding the spiritual crisis.

