✧I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath. ✧2He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light. ✧3Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long. ✧4He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones. ✧5He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. ✧6He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages. ✧7He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains. ✧8Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer. ✧9He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked. ✧10He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush. ✧11He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help. ✧12He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow. ✧13He pierced my kidneys with His arrows. ✧14I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long. ✧15He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood. ✧16He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust. ✧17My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. ✧18So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.” ✧19Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall. ✧20Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me. ✧21Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: ✧22Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. ✧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 to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. ✧27It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young. ✧28Let him sit alone in silence, for God has disciplined him. ✧29Let him bury his face in the dust— perhaps there is still hope. ✧30Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him; let him be filled with reproach. ✧31For the Lord will not cast us off forever. ✧32Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion. ✧33For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men. ✧34To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land, ✧35to deny a man justice before the Most High, ✧36to subvert a man in his lawsuit— of these the Lord does not approve. ✧37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it? ✧38Do not both adversity and good come from the mouth of the Most High? ✧39Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins? ✧40Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD. ✧41Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: ✧42“We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.” ✧43You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity. ✧44You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through. ✧45You have made us scum and refuse among the nations. ✧46All our enemies open their mouths against us. ✧47Panic and pitfall have come upon us— devastation and destruction. ✧48Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people. ✧49My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief, ✧50until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees. ✧51My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city. ✧52Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird. ✧53They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me. ✧54The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die. ✧55I called on Your name, O LORD, out of the depths of the Pit. ✧56You heard my plea: “Do not ignore my cry for relief.” ✧57You drew near when I called on You; You said, “Do not be afraid.” ✧58You defend my cause, O Lord; You redeem my life. ✧59You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me; vindicate my cause! ✧60You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me. ✧61O LORD, You have heard their insults, all their plots against me— ✧62the slander and murmuring of my assailants against me all day long. ✧63When they sit and when they rise, see how they mock me in song. ✧64You will pay them back what they deserve, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. ✧65Put a veil of anguish over their hearts; may Your curse be upon them! ✧66You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.