³⁷Who can command and have it done,
   if the Lord has not ordained it?
³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
   that good and bad come?
³⁹Why should any who draw breath complain
   about the punishment of their sins?

⁴⁰Let us test and examine our ways,
   and return to the Lord.
⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands
   to God in heaven.
⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled,
   and you have not forgiven.

⁴³You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
   killing without pity;
⁴⁴you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
   so that no prayer can pass through.
⁴⁵You have made us filth and rubbish
   among the peoples.

⁴⁶All our enemies
   have opened their mouths against us;
⁴⁷panic and pitfall have come upon us,
   devastation and destruction.
⁴⁸My eyes flow with rivers of tears
   because of the destruction of my people.

⁴⁹My eyes will flow without ceasing,
   without respite,
⁵⁰until the Lord from heaven
   looks down and sees.
⁵¹My eyes cause me grief
   at the fate of all the young women in my city.

⁵²Those who were my enemies without cause
   have hunted me like a bird;
⁵³they flung me alive into a pit
   and hurled stones on me;
⁵⁴water closed over my head;
   I said, ‘I am lost.’

⁵⁵I called on your name, O Lord,
   from the depths of the pit;
⁵⁶you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear
   to my cry for help, but give me relief!’
⁵⁷You came near when I called on you;
   you said, ‘Do not fear!’

⁵⁸You have taken up my cause, O Lord,
   you have redeemed my life.