[1] I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;
[2] he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
[3] surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
[4] He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;
[5] he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
[6] he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
[7] He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;
[8] though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;
[9] he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.
[10] He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;
[11] he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
[12] he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
[13] He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;
[14] I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.
[15] He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated 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, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.”
[19] Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
[20] My soul continually remembers 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 who seeks him.
[26] It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
[27] It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
[28] Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;
[29] let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope;
[30] let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.
[31] For the Lord will not cast off forever,
[32] but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
[33] for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
[34] To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,
[35] to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,
[36] to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.
[37] Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?
[38] Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
[39] Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?
[40] Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord !
[41] Let us lift up our hearts and 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 scum and garbage among the peoples.
[46] “All our enemies open 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 the daughter 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 daughters of my city.
[52] “I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause;
[53] “they flung me alive into the pit and cast 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!’
[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 vengeance, all their plots against me.
[61] “You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me.
[62] “The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.
[63] “Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts.
[64] “You will repay them, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
[65] “You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them.
[66] “You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O Lord.”