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1I am the man who has seen affliction
2 He has led me away and made me walk
in darkness instead of light.
3 Truly His hand is turned against me,
again and again, all day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin grow old
and shattered my bones.
5 He has besieged me and surrounded me
with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.
7 He has hedged me in so I cannot escape;
He has weighed me down with heavy chains.
8 Even when I cry out and plead for help,
He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has barred my way with blocks of stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait,
like a lion in hiding.
11 He has forced me off the path and torn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent His bow
and set me as the target for His arrows.
13 He pierced my bowels
with arrows from His quiver.
14 I have become the laughingstock of all my people;
they mock me in song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness,
He has sated me with wormwood.
16 He has ground my teeth with gravel;
He has covered me with ashes.
17 My soul has become bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “Gone is my splendour,
and all that I hoped from the Lord is lost.”
19 Remember my affliction and my homeless wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall.
20 My soul keeps them in remembrance
and is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the Lord’s faithful love we are not consumed,
for His mercies never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.
24 My soul says, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will put my hope in Him!”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
to the soul who seeks after Him.
26 It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is still young.
28 Let him sit alone in silence,
for God has laid it on him.
29 Let him bury his face in the dust—
perhaps there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him;
let him be filled with shame.
31 For the Lord will not
cast us off forever.
32 Though He brings grief, yet He will show compassion,
according to the abundance of His faithful love.
33 For He does not afflict willingly,
or bring grief to the children of men.
34 To crush underfoot
all the prisoners of the land,
35 or denying justice
in the presence of the Most High,
36 or subverting a man in his cause—
the Lord does not approve of such things.
37 Who can speak and have it happen
if the Lord has not ordained it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both adversity and good proceed?
39 Why should any living man complain
when he is punished for his sins?
40 Let us search out and examine our ways,
and turn back to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven, and say:
42 “We have sinned and rebelled,
and You have not forgiven.
43 “You have covered Yourself with anger and pursued us;
You have slain without pity.
44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have made us scum and refuse
among the peoples.
46 “All our enemies have opened their mouths
wide against us.
47 Terror and pitfalls have come upon us,
and devastation and destruction.”
48 My eyes overflow with streams of tears
because of the destruction of my people.
49 My eyes overflow without ceasing,
without end,
50 until the Lord looks down
from heaven and sees.
51 My eyes bring grief to my soul
because of the fate of all the women of my city.
52 My enemies hunted me down like a bird
for no apparent reason.
53 They attempted to end my life,
dropping me in a pit and hurling rocks on me;
54 the waters closed over my head,
and I said, “I am about to be cut off!”
55 “I called on Your name, O Lord,
from the depths of the Pit.
56 You heard my plea.
Do not close Your ears
to my cry for help.
57 You drew near when I called to You,
and You said, “Do not be afraid.”
58 “O Lord, You have defended my cause;
You have redeemed my life.
59 O Lord, You have seen the wrong done to me;
judge my case.
60 You have seen all their malice,
and all their schemes against me.
61 “O Lord, You have heard their insults,
and all their schemes against me;
62 the whispers and muttering of my enemies
against me all day long.
63 Whether they sit or stand,
I am mocked by them in their songs.
64 “Pay them back what they deserve, O Lord,
according to the work of their hands.
65 Give them anguish of heart;
may Your curse be on them!
66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them
from under the heavens of the Lord.”