¹I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;

²he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;

³surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.

⁴He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;

⁵he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;

⁶he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.

⁷He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;

⁸though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;

⁹he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;

¹¹he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;

¹²he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.

¹³He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;

¹⁴I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts 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, "My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD."

¹⁹Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!

²⁰My soul continually remembers 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 who seeks him.

²⁶It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

²⁸Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;

²⁹let him put his mouth in the dust--there may yet be hope;

³⁰let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.

³¹For the Lord will not cast off forever,

³²but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

³³for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.

³⁴To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,

³⁵to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,

³⁶to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.

³⁷Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?

³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

³⁹Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!

⁴¹Let 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;

⁴⁴you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples.

⁴⁶"All our enemies open 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 the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹"My 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 daughters of my city.

⁵²"I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause;

⁵³they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me;

⁵⁴water closed over my head; I said, 'I am lost.'

⁵⁵"I 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!'

⁵⁷You 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.

⁵⁹You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause.

⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.

⁶¹"You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me.

⁶²The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.

⁶³Behold 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.

⁶⁵You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them.

⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD."