¹I AM [Jeremiah] the man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath.

²He has led me and brought me into darkness and not light.

³Surely He has turned away from me; His hand is against me all the day.

⁴My flesh and my skin has He worn out and made old; He has shattered my bones.

⁵He has built up [siege mounds] against me and surrounded me with bitterness, tribulation, and anguish.

⁶He has caused me to dwell in dark places like those long dead.

⁷He walled me in so that I cannot get out; He has weighted down my chain.

⁸Even when I cry and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer.

⁹He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He is to me like a bear lying in wait, and like a lion [hiding] in secret places.

¹¹He has turned me off my ways and pulled me in pieces; He has made me desolate.

¹²He has bent His bow and set me as a mark for the arrow.

¹³He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my heart [the seat of my affections and desires].

¹⁴I have become a derision to all my people, and [the subject of] their singsong all the day.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drink to excess and until drunken with wormwood [bitterness].

¹⁶He has also broken my teeth with gravel (stones); He has covered me with ashes.

¹⁷And You have bereaved my soul and cast it off far from peace; I have forgotten what good and happiness are.

¹⁸And I say, Perished is my strength and my expectation from the Lord.

¹⁹[O Lord] remember [earnestly] my affliction and my misery, my wandering and my outcast state, the wormwood and the gall.

²⁰My soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed down within me.

²¹But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation:

²²It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. [Mal. 3:6.]

²³They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness. [Isa. 33:2.]

²⁴The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him. [Num. 18:20.]

²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God's word].

²⁶It is good that one should hope in and wait quietly for the salvation (the safety and ease) of the Lord.

²⁷It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke [of divine disciplinary dealings] in his youth.

²⁸Let him sit alone uncomplaining and keeping silent [in hope], because [God] has laid [the yoke] upon him [for his benefit]. [Rom. 8:28.]

²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust [in abject recognition of his unworthiness]–there may yet be hope. [Mic. 7:17.]

³⁰Let him give his cheek to the One Who smites him [even through His human agents]; let him be filled [full] with [men's] reproach [in meekness].

³¹For the Lord will not cast off forever! [Ps. 94:14.]

³²But though He causes grief, yet will He be moved to compassion according to the multitude of His loving-kindness and tender mercy.

³³For He does not willingly and from His heart afflict or grieve the children of men. [Ezek. 18:23, 32; Hos. 11:8; Heb. 12:5-10; II Pet. 3:9.]

³⁴To trample and crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵To turn aside and deprive a man of his rights before the face of the Most High or a superior [acting as God's representative],

³⁶To subvert a man in his cause–[of these things] the Lord does not approve.

³⁷Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, if the Lord has not authorized and commanded it?

³⁸Is it not out of the mouth of the Most High that evil and good both proceed [adversity and prosperity, physical evil or misfortune and physical good or happiness]?

³⁹Why does a living man sigh [one who is still in this life's school of discipline]? [And why does] a man complain for the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us test and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord!

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts and our hands [and then with them mount up in prayer] to God in heaven:

⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled and You have not pardoned.

⁴³You have covered Yourself with wrath and pursued and afflicted us; You have slain without pity.

⁴⁴You have covered Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us offscouring and refuse among the nations.

⁴⁶All our enemies have gaped at us and railed against us.

⁴⁷Fear and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction.

⁴⁸My eyes overflow with streams of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹My eyes overflow continually and will not cease

⁵⁰Until the Lord looks down and sees from heaven.

⁵¹My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the maidens [and the daughter-towns] of my city [Jerusalem].

⁵²I have been hunted down like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause.

⁵³They [thought they had] destroyed my life in the dungeon (pit) and cast a stone [over it] above me. [Jer. 38.]

⁵⁴The waters ran down on my head; I said, I am gone.

⁵⁵I called upon Your name, O Lord, out of the depths [of the mire] of the dungeon. [Jer. 38:6.]

⁵⁶You heard my voice [then]: [Oh] hide not Your ear [now] at my prayer for relief.

⁵⁷You drew near on the day I called to You; You said, Fear not. [James 4:8.]

⁵⁸O Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul [You have managed my affairs and You have protected my person and my rights]; You have rescued and redeemed my life!

⁵⁹O Lord, You have seen my wrong [done to me]; judge and maintain my cause.

⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me.

⁶¹You have heard their reproach and revilings, O Lord, and all their devices against me–

⁶²The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all day long.

⁶³Look at their sitting down and their rising up [their movements, doings, and secret counsels]; I am their singsong [the subject of their derision and merriment]. [Ps. 139:2; Isa. 37:28.]

⁶⁴Render to them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵You will give them hardness and blindness of heart; Your curse will be upon them.

⁶⁶You will pursue and afflict them in anger and destroy them from under Your heavens, O Lord.