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 walk
In darkness and not in light.

3:3  Surely He has turned His hand against me
Time and time again throughout the day.

3:4  He has aged my flesh and my skin,
And broken my bones.

3:5  He has besieged me
And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.

3:6  He has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.

3:7  He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.

3:8  Even when I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.

3:9  He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.

3:10  He has been to me a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in ambush.

3:11  He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.

3:12  He has bent His bow
And set me up as a target for the arrow.

3:13  He has caused the arrows of His quiver
To pierce my loins.

3:14  I have become the ridicule of all my people—
Their taunting song all the day.

3:15  He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.

3:16  He has also broken my teeth with gravel,
And covered me with ashes.

3:17  You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten prosperity.

3:18  And I said, “My strength and my hope
Have perished from the LORD.”

3:19  Remember my affliction and roaming,
The wormwood and the gall.

3:20  My soul still remembers
And sinks within me.

3:21  This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.

3:22  Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.

3:23  They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

3:24  “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“ Therefore I 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 wait quietly
For the salvation of the LORD.

3:27  It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.

3:28  Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;

3:29  Let him put his mouth in the dust—
There may yet be hope.

3:30  Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.

3:31  For the Lord will not cast off forever.

3:32  Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.

3:33  For He does not afflict willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.

3:34  To crush under one’s feet
All the prisoners of the earth,

3:35  To turn aside the justice due a man
Before the face of the Most High,

3:36  Or subvert a man in his cause—
The Lord does not approve.

3:37  Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass,
When the Lord has not commanded it?

3:38  Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That woe and well-being proceed?

3:39  Why should a living man complain,
A man for the punishment of his sins?

3:40  Let us search out and examine our ways,
And turn back to the LORD;

3:41  Let us lift our hearts and hands
To God in heaven.

3:42  We have transgressed and rebelled;
You have not pardoned.

3:43  You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and not pitied.

3:44  You have covered Yourself with a cloud,
That prayer should not pass through.

3:45  You have made us an offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.

3:46  All our enemies
Have opened their mouths against us.

3:47  Fear and a snare have come upon us,
Desolation and destruction.

3:48  My eyes overflow with rivers of water
For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

3:49  My eyes flow and do not cease,
Without interruption,

3:50  Till the LORD from heaven
Looks down and sees.

3:51  My eyes bring suffering to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.

3:52  My enemies without cause
Hunted me down like a bird.

3:53  They silenced my life in the pit
And threw stones at me.

3:54  The waters flowed over my head;
I said, “I am cut off!”

3:55  I called on Your name, O LORD,
From the lowest pit.

3:56  You have heard my voice:
“ Do not hide Your ear
From my sighing, from my cry for help.”

3:57  You drew near on the day I called on You,
And said, “Do not fear!”

3:58  O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul;
You have redeemed my life.

3:59  O LORD, You have seen how I am wronged;
Judge my case.

3:60  You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.

3:61  You have heard their reproach, O LORD,
All their schemes against me,

3:62  The lips of my enemies
And their whispering against me all the day.

3:63  Look at their sitting down and their rising up;
I am their taunting song.

3:64  Repay them, O LORD,
According to the work of their hands.

3:65  Give them a veiled heart;
Your curse be upon them!

3:66  In Your anger,
Pursue and destroy them
From under the heavens of the LORD.