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3I am one who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath; ²he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; ³against me alone he turns his hand, again and again, all day long. ⁴He has made my flesh and my skin waste away, and broken my bones; ⁵he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; ⁶he has made me sit in darkness like the dead of long ago. ⁷He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has put heavy chains on me; ⁸though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; ⁹he has blocked my ways with hewn stones, he has made my paths crooked. ¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; ¹¹he led me off my way and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; ¹²he bent his bow and set me as a mark for his arrow. ¹³He shot into my vitals the arrows of his quiver; ¹⁴I have become the laughingstock of all my people, the object of their taunt-songs all day long. ¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood. ¹⁶He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; ¹⁷my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; ¹⁸so I say, “Gone is my glory, and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.” ¹⁹The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! ²⁰My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.

²¹But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: ²²The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; 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 that seeks him. ²⁶It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. ²⁷It is good for one to bear the yoke in youth, ²⁸to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it, ²⁹to put one’s mouth to the dust (there may yet be hope), ³⁰to give one’s cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults. ³¹For the Lord will not reject forever. ³²Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; ³³for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone. ³⁴When all the prisoners of the land are crushed under foot, ³⁵when human rights are perverted in the presence of the Most High, ³⁶when one’s case is subverted—does the Lord not see it?

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. ⁵⁹You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; judge my cause. ⁶⁰You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me. ⁶¹You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me. ⁶²The whispers and murmurs of my assailants are against me all day long. ⁶³Whether they sit or rise—see, I am the object of their taunt-songs. ⁶⁴Pay them back for their deeds, O Lord, according to the work of their hands! ⁶⁵Give them anguish of heart; your curse be on them! ⁶⁶Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the Lord’s heavens.