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God’s Steadfast Love Endures

3I am one who has seen affliction
   under the rod of God’s ^* wrath;
² he has driven and brought me
   into darkness without any light;
³ against me alone he turns his hand,
   again and again, all day long.

⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,
   and broken my bones;
⁵ he has besieged and enveloped me
   with bitterness and tribulation;
⁶ he has made me sit in darkness
   like the dead of long ago.

⁷ He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
   he has put heavy chains on me;
⁸ though I call and cry for help,
   he shuts out my prayer;
⁹ he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,
   he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰ He is a bear lying in wait for me,
   a lion in hiding;
¹¹ he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;
   he has made me desolate;
¹² he bent his bow and set me
   as a mark for his arrow.

¹³ He shot into my vitals
   the arrows of his quiver;
¹⁴ I have become the laughing-stock of all my people,
   the object of their taunt-songs all day long.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness,
   he has glutted me with wormwood.

¹⁶ He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
   and made me cower in ashes;
¹⁷ my soul is bereft of peace;
   I have forgotten what happiness is;
¹⁸ so I say, ‘Gone is my glory,
   and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.’

¹⁹ The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
   is wormwood and gall!
²⁰ My soul continually thinks of it
   and is bowed down within me.
²¹ But this I call to mind,
   and therefore I have hope:

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,^*
   his mercies never come to an end;
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 that seeks him.
²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly
   for the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for one to bear
   the yoke in youth,
²⁸ to sit alone in silence
   when the Lord has imposed it,
²⁹ to put one’s mouth to the dust
   (there may yet be hope),
³⁰ to give one’s cheek to the smiter,
   and be filled with insults.

³¹ For the Lord will not
   reject for ever.
³² Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
   according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
³³ for he does not willingly afflict
   or grieve anyone.

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.

The Punishment of Zion

4How the gold has grown dim,
   how the pure gold is changed!
The sacred stones lie scattered
   at the head of every street.

² The precious children of Zion,
   worth their weight in fine gold—
how they are reckoned as earthen pots,
   the work of a potter’s hands!

³ Even the jackals offer the breast
   and nurse their young,
but my people has become cruel,
   like the ostriches in the wilderness.

⁴ The tongue of the infant sticks
   to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food,
   but no one gives them anything.

⁵ Those who feasted on delicacies
   perish in the streets;
those who were brought up in purple
   cling to ash heaps.

⁶ For the chastisement^* of my people has been greater
   than the punishment^* of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,
   though no hand was laid on it.^*

⁷ Her princes were purer than snow,
   whiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
   their hair^* like sapphire.^*

⁸ Now their visage is blacker than soot;
   they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin has shrivelled on their bones;
   it has become as dry as wood.

⁹ Happier were those pierced by the sword
   than those pierced by hunger,
whose life drains away, deprived
   of the produce of the field.

¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women
   have boiled their own children;
they became their food
   in the destruction of my people.

¹¹ The Lord gave full vent to his wrath;
   he poured out his hot anger,
and kindled a fire in Zion
   that consumed its foundations.