¹I am the man who has seen affliction

by the rod of his wrath .

²He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness ,

and not in light.

³Surely he turns his hand against me

again and again all day long .

⁴He has made my flesh and my skin old .

He has broken my bones .

⁵He has built against me ,

and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship .

⁶He has made me dwell in dark places ,

as those who have been long dead .

⁷He has walled me about , so that I can ’t go out .

He has made my chain heavy .

⁸Yes , when I cry , and call for help ,

he shuts out my prayer .

⁹He has walled up my ways with cut stone .

He has made my paths crooked .

¹⁰He is to me as a bear lying in wait,

as a lion in hiding .

¹¹He has turned away my path ,

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 shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys .

¹⁴I have become a derision to all my people ,

and their song all day long .

¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness .

He has stuffed me with wormwood .

¹⁶He has also broken my teeth with gravel .

He has covered me with ashes.

¹⁷You have removed my soul far away from peace .

I forgot prosperity .

¹⁸I said, “My strength has perished,

along with my expectation from the LORD .”

¹⁹Remember my affliction and my misery ,

the wormwood and the bitterness .

²⁰My soul still remembers them ,

and is bowed down within me .

²¹This I recall to my mind ;

therefore I have hope .

²²It is because of the LORD ’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed ,

because his mercies don’t fail .

²³They are new every morning .

Great is your faithfulness.

²⁴“The LORD is my portion ,” says my soul .

“Therefore I will hope in him .”

²⁵The LORD is good to those who wait for him ,

to the soul who seeks him .

²⁶It is good that a man should hope

and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD .

²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth .

²⁸Let him sit alone and keep silence ,

because he has laid it on him .

²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust ,

if it is so that there may be hope .

³⁰Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him .

Let him be filled full of reproach .

³¹For the Lord will not cast off forever .

³²For though he causes grief ,

yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses .

³³For he does not afflict willingly ,

nor grieve the children of men .

³⁴To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High ,

³⁶to subvert a man in his cause , the Lord doesn’t approve .

³⁷Who is he who says, and it comes to pass ,

when the Lord doesn’t command it ?

³⁸Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High ?

³⁹Why should a living man complain,

a man for the punishment of his sins ?

⁴⁰Let us search and try our ways ,

and turn again to the LORD .

⁴¹Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens .[#3:41 The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “” (Elohim).]

⁴²“We have transgressed and have rebelled .

You have not pardoned .

⁴³“You have covered us with anger and pursued us.

You have killed .

You have not pitied .

⁴⁴You have covered yourself with a cloud ,

so that no prayer can pass through .

⁴⁵You have made us an off-scouring and refuse

in the middle of the peoples .

⁴⁶“All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us .

⁴⁷Terror and the pit have come on us ,

devastation and destruction .”

⁴⁸My eye runs down with streams of water ,

for the destruction of the daughter of my people .

⁴⁹My eye pours down

and doesn’t cease ,

without any intermission ,

⁵⁰until the LORD looks down ,

and sees from heaven .

⁵¹My eye affects my soul ,

because of all the daughters of my city .

⁵²They have chased me relentlessly like a bird ,

those who are my enemies without cause .

⁵³They have cut off my life in the dungeon,

and have cast a stone on me .

⁵⁴Waters flowed over my head .

I said, “I am cut off .”

⁵⁵I called on your name , LORD ,

out of the lowest dungeon.

⁵⁶You heard my voice :

“Don’t hide your ear from my sighing,

and my cry .”

⁵⁷You came near in the day that I called on you .

You said , “Don’t be afraid .”

⁵⁸Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul .

You have redeemed my life .

⁵⁹LORD , you have seen my wrong .

Judge my cause .

⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance

and all their plans against me .

⁶¹You have heard their reproach , LORD ,

and all their plans against me ,

⁶²the lips of those that rose up against me ,

and their plots against me all day long .

⁶³You see their sitting down and their rising up .

I am their song .

⁶⁴You will pay them back , LORD ,

according to the work of their hands .

⁶⁵You will give them hardness of heart ,

your curse to them .

⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger,

and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD .