3:1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. |
3:2 He has led me and made me go in darkness and not into light. |
3:3 Surely He has turned, He has turned His hand against me again and again all day long. |
3:4 He has wasted my flesh and my skin; He has broken my bones. |
3:5 He has besieged me and has encircled me with bitterness and tribulation. |
3:6 He has made me live in dark places, like those who have long been dead. |
3:7 He has set a fence around me so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy. |
3:8 Also when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer. |
3:9 He has blocked my ways with cut stone; He has made my paths crooked. |
3:10 He was as a bear lying in wait for me, as a lion in secret places. |
3:11 He has turned my ways aside and has torn me to pieces. He has made me desolate. |
3:12 He has bent His bow and has set me as a mark for the arrow. |
3:13 He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my inward parts. |
3:14 I was a mockery to all my people, their song all the day. |
3:15 He has filled me with bitterness and made me drunk with wormwood. |
3:16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; He has made me to wallow in ashes. |
3:17 And my soul is removed far off from peace; I have forgotten happiness. |
3:18 And I said, "My strength and my hope from the LORD are perished." |
3:19 Remember my affliction and my anguish, the wormwood and bitterness of gall. |
3:20 My soul vividly remembers and is bowed down within me. |
3:21 I recall this to my mind; therefore I have hope. |
3:22 It is by the LORD'S mercies that we are not destroyed, because His compassions never fail. |
3:23 They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. |
3:24 "The LORD is my portion," says my soul; "therefore I will hope in Him." |
3:25 The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. |
3:26 It is good that one should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. |
3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. |
3:28 Let him sit alone and in silence because He laid it upon him. |
3:29 He puts his mouth in the dust, if perhaps there may yet be hope. |
3:30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled with reproach. |
3:31 For the LORD will not cast off forever; |
3:32 For though He causes grief, yet He will have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. |
3:33 For He does not afflict willingly, nor does He grieve the children of men; |
3:34 To crush all the prisoners of the earth under his feet; |
3:35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High; |
3:36 To subvert a man in his cause—of this the LORD does not approve. |
3:37 Who is this who speaks, and it comes to pass, when the LORD does not ordain it? |
3:38 From the mouth of the Most High does not the bad and the good proceed? |
3:39 Wherefore does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? |
3:40 Let us test and examine our ways, and return again to the LORD. |
3:41 Let us lift up our heart and hands to God in heaven. |
3:42 We have transgressed and have rebelled; You have not pardoned. |
3:43 You have covered Yourself with anger and pursued us; You have slain unsparingly; |
3:44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud that our prayer should not pass through. |
3:45 You have made us as the offscouring and refuse among the people. |
3:46 All our enemies have opened their mouths railing against us. |
3:47 Fear and a snare have come upon us, desolation and destruction. |
3:48 Streams of water run down my eye for the destruction of the daughter of my people. |
3:49 My eye flows down and does not cease, without any intermission, |
3:50 Until the LORD shall look down and behold from heaven. |
3:51 My eye afflicted my soul because of all the daughters of my city. |
3:52 My enemies have hunted me, like a bird, without cause. |
3:53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. |
3:54 Waters flowed over my head; then I said, "I am cut off." |
3:55 I called upon Your name, O LORD, out of the lowest dungeon. |
3:56 You have heard my voice: "Do not hide Your ear at my sighing, at my cry for help." |
3:57 You drew near in the day that I called upon You; You said, "Fear not." |
3:58 O LORD, You have pleaded for the causes of my soul; You have redeemed my life. |
3:59 O LORD, You have seen the wrong done to me; You judge my cause. |
3:60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their devises against me. |
3:61 You have heard their taunt, O LORD, all their imaginations against me; |
3:62 The lips of those who rose up against me, and their scheming against me all the day. |
3:63 Behold at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their mocking song. |
3:64 You will render to them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. |
3:65 You will give them dullness of heart—Your curse be on them! |
3:66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD. |