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³⁴ When all the prisoners of the land
   are crushed under foot,
³⁵ when human rights are perverted
   in the presence of the Most High,
³⁶ when one’s case is subverted
   —does the Lord not see it?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

⁵⁸ You have taken up my cause, O Lord,
   you have redeemed my life.
⁵⁹ You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;
   judge my cause.
⁶⁰ You have seen all their malice,
   all their plots against me.

⁶¹ You have heard their taunts, O Lord,
   all their plots against me.
⁶² The whispers and murmurs of my assailants
   are against me all day long.
⁶³ Whether they sit or rise—see,
   I am the object of their taunt-songs.

⁶⁴ Pay them back for their deeds, O Lord,
   according to the work of their hands!
⁶⁵ Give them anguish of heart;
   your curse be on them!
⁶⁶ Pursue them in anger and destroy them
   from under the Lord’s heavens.