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.

26 It is good that one should whope xand wait quietly

For the salvation of the Lord.

27 yIt is good for a man to bear

The yoke in his youth.

28 zLet him sit alone and keep silent,

Because God has laid it on him;

29 aLet him put his mouth in the dust—

There may yet be hope.

30 bLet him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,

And be full of reproach.

31 cFor the Lord will not cast off forever.

32 Though He causes grief,

Yet He will show compassion

According to the multitude of His mercies.

33 For dHe does not afflict 9willingly,

Nor grieve the children of men.

34 To crush under one’s feet

All the prisoners of the earth,

35 To turn aside the justice due a man

Before the face of the Most High,

36 Or subvert a man in his cause—

eThe Lord does not approve.

37 Who is he fwho speaks and it comes to pass,

When the Lord has not commanded it?

38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

That gwoe and well-being proceed?

39 hWhy should a living man 1complain,

iA man for the punishment of his sins?

40 Let us search out and examine our ways,

And turn back to the Lord;

41 jLet us lift our hearts and hands

To God in heaven.

42 kWe have transgressed and rebelled;

You have not pardoned.

43 You have covered Yourself with anger

And pursued us;

You have slain and not pitied.

44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud,

That prayer should not pass through.

45 You have made us an loffscouring and refuse

In the midst of the peoples.

46 mAll our enemies

Have opened their mouths against us.

47 nFear and a snare have come upon us,

oDesolation and destruction.

48 pMy eyes overflow with rivers of water

For the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 qMy eyes flow and do not cease,

Without interruption,

50 Till the Lord from heaven

rLooks down and sees.

51 My eyes bring suffering to my soul

Because of all the daughters of my city.

52 My enemies swithout cause

Hunted me down like a bird.

53 They 2silenced my life tin the pit

And uthrew 3stones at me.

54 vThe waters flowed over my head;

wI said, “I am cut off!”

55 xI called on Your name, O Lord,

From the lowest ypit.

56 zYou have heard my voice:

“Do not hide Your ear

From my sighing, from my cry for help.”

57 You adrew near on the day I called on You,

And said, b“Do not fear!”

58 O Lord, You have cpleaded the case for my soul;

dYou have redeemed my life.

59 O Lord, You have seen 4how I am wronged;

eJudge my case.

60 You have seen all their vengeance,

All their fschemes against me.

61 You have heard their reproach, O Lord,

All their schemes against me,

62 The lips of my enemies

And their whispering against me all the day.

63 Look at their gsitting down and their rising up;

I am their taunting song.

64 hRepay them, O Lord,

According to the work of their hands.

65 Give them 5a veiled heart;

Your curse be upon them!

66 In Your anger,

Pursue and destroy them

iFrom under the heavens of the jLord.