Chapter 3
1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath .
2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness , and not in light.
3 Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long .
4 He has made my flesh and my skin old . He has broken my bones .
5 He has built against me , and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship .
6 He has made me dwell in dark places , as those who have been long dead .
7 He has walled me about , so that I can ’t go out . He has made my chain heavy .
8 Yes , when I cry , and call for help , he shuts out my prayer .
9 He has walled up my ways with cut stone . He has made my paths crooked .
10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in hiding .
11 He has turned away my path , and pulled me in pieces . He has made me desolate .
12 He has bent his bow , and set me as a mark for the arrow .
13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys .
14 I have become a derision to all my people , and their song all day long .
15 He has filled me with bitterness . He has stuffed me with wormwood .
16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel . He has covered me with ashes.
17 You have removed my soul far away from peace . I forgot prosperity .
18 I said, " My strength has perished, along with my expectation from the LORD ."
19 Remember my affliction and my misery , the wormwood and the bitterness .
20 My soul still remembers them , and is bowed down within me .
21 This I recall to my mind ; therefore I have hope .
22 It is because of the LORD ’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed , because his mercies don’t fail .
23 They are new every morning . Great is your faithfulness.
24 " The LORD is my portion ," says my soul . " Therefore I will hope in him ."
25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him , to the soul who seeks him .
26 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD .
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth .
28 Let him sit alone and keep silence , because he has laid it on him .
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust , if it is so that there may be hope .
30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him . Let him be filled full of reproach .
31 For the Lord will not cast off forever .
32 For though he causes grief , yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses .
33 For he does not afflict willingly , nor grieve the children of men .
34 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High ,
36 to subvert a man in his cause , the Lord doesn’t approve .
37 Who is he who says, and it comes to pass , when the Lord doesn’t command it ?
38 Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High ?
39 Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins ?
40 Let us search and try our ways , and turn again to the LORD .
41 Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God " (Elohim). in the heavens .
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 .
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud , so that no prayer can pass through .
45 You 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 .
47 Terror and the pit have come on us , devastation and destruction ."
48 My eye runs down with streams of water , for the destruction of the daughter of my people .
49 My eye pours down and doesn’t cease , without any intermission ,
50 until the LORD looks down , and sees from heaven .
51 My eye affects my soul , because of all the daughters of my city .
52 They have chased me relentlessly like a bird , those who are my enemies without cause .
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me .
54 Waters flowed over my head . I said, " I am cut off ."
55 I called on your name , LORD , out of the lowest dungeon.
56 You heard my voice : "Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry ."
57 You came near in the day that I called on you . You said , "Don’t be afraid ."
58 Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul . You have redeemed my life .
59 LORD , you have seen my wrong . Judge my cause .
60 You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me .
61 You have heard their reproach , LORD , and all their plans against me ,
62 the lips of those that rose up against me , and their plots against me all day long .
63 You see their sitting down and their rising up . I am their song .
64 You will pay them back , LORD , according to the work of their hands .
65 You will give them hardness of heart , your curse to them .
66 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD .