The Prophet’s Anguish and Hope

3 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.

2 He has led me and made me walk

In darkness and not in light.

3 Surely He has turned His hand against me

Time and time again throughout the day.

4 He has aged amy flesh and my skin,

And bbroken my bones.

5 He has besieged me

And surrounded me with bitterness and 1woe.

6 cHe has set me in dark places

Like the dead of long ago.

7 dHe has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;

He has made my chain heavy.

8 Even ewhen I cry and shout,

He shuts out my prayer.

9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;

He has made my paths crooked.

10 fHe has been to me a bear lying in wait,

Like a lion in 2ambush.

11 He has turned aside my ways and gtorn me in pieces;

He has made me desolate.

12 He has bent His bow

And hset me up as a target for the arrow.

13 He has caused ithe 3arrows of His quiver

To pierce my 4loins.

14 I have become the jridicule of all my people—

kTheir taunting song all the day.

15 lHe has filled me with bitterness,

He has made me drink wormwood.

16 He has also broken my teeth mwith gravel,

And 5covered me with ashes.

17 You have moved my soul far from peace;

I have forgotten 6prosperity.

18 nAnd I said, “My strength and my hope

Have perished from the Lord.”

19 Remember my affliction and roaming,

oThe wormwood and the 7gall.

20 My soul still remembers

And 8sinks within me.

21 This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have phope.

22 qThrough the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions rfail not.

23 They are new severy morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

24 “The Lord is my tportion,” says my soul,

“Therefore I uhope in Him!”

25 The Lord is good to those who vwait for Him,

To the soul who seeks Him.