UNETANEH TOKEF
The Unetaneh Tokef is a prayer playing a pivotal role in the commemoration of Judaism’s High Holy Days. Here is the prayer’s full verse:
We lend power to the holiness of this day. For it is tremendous and awe filled, and on it your kingship will be exalted, your throne will be established in lovingkindness, and you will sit on that throne in truth.
It is true that you are the one who judges, and reproves, who knows all, and bears witness, who inscribes, and seals, who reckons and enumerates. You remember all that is forgotten. You open the book of records, and from it, all shall be read. In it lies each person’s insignia.
And a great shofar is sounded, and a still small voice is heard. And the angels shall be alarmed, and dread and fear shall seize them as they proclaim: Behold! The Day of Judgment on which the hosts of heaven shall be judged, for they too shall not be judged blameless by you, and all creatures shall parade before you as a herd of sheep. As a shepherd herds his flock, directing his sheep to pass under his staff, so shall you pass, count, and record the souls of all the living, decree a limit to each person’s days, and inscribe their final judgment.
On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed — how many shall pass away and how many shall be born, who shall live and who shall die, who in good time, and who by an untimely death, who by water and who by fire, who by sword and who by wild beast, who by famine and who by thirst, who by earthquake and who by plague, who by strangling and who by stoning, who shall have rest and who wander, who shall be at peace and who pursued, who shall be serene and who tormented, who shall become impoverished and who wealthy, who shall be debased, and who exalted. But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severity of the decree.
For your praise is just as your name. You are slow to anger and quick to be appeased. For you do not desire the death of the condemned, rather, that they turn from their path and live. You wait for them until the day of their death, and if they repent, you receive them immediately. It is true that you are their Creator and you understand their inclination, for they are but flesh and blood.
We come from dust and return to dust. We labor by our lives for bread, we are like broken shards, like dry grass and like a withered flower; like a passing shadow and a vanishing cloud, like a breeze that passes, like dust that scatters, like a fleeting dream.
But you are the king, our God who lives and endures. There is no limit to your years, no end to the length of your days, no measure to the hosts of your glory, no understanding the meaning of your name. Your name is fitting unto you and you are fitting unto it, and our name has been called by your name. Act for the sake of your name and sanctify your name through those who sanctify your name. — Translation adapted from
Sefaria.org