[1] I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
[2] He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
[3] Surely he turns his hand against me again and again all day long.
[4] He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
[5] He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
[6] He has made me dwell in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
[7] He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy.
[8] Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
[9] He has walled up my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.
[10] He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
[11] He has turned away my ways, and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.
[12] He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
[13] He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
[14] I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
[15] He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.
[16] He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
[17] You have removed my soul far away from peace. I forgot prosperity.
[18] I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from the LORD.”
[19] Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
[20] My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
[21] This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.
[22] It is because of The LORD’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail.
[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 a man should hope and quietly wait 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 and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
[29] Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.
[30] Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
[31] For the Lord will not cast off forever.
[32] For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
[33] For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
[34] To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
[35] to turn away the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
[36] to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn’t approve.
[37] Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn’t command it?
[38] Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
[39] Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
[40] Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
[41] Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
[42] “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
[43] “You have covered us with anger and pursued us. You have killed. You have not pitied.
[44] You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
[45] You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
[46] “All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
[47] Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
[48] My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
[49] My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any intermission,
[50] until the LORD looks down, and sees from heaven.
[51] My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
[52] They have chased me relentlessly like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
[53] They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
[54] Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.”
[55] I called on your name, LORD, out of the lowest dungeon.
[56] You heard my voice: “Don’t hide your ear from my sighing, and my cry.”
[57] You came near in the day that I called on you. You said, “Don’t be afraid.”
[58] Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
[59] LORD, you have seen my wrong. Judge my cause.
[60] You have seen all their vengeance and all their plans against me.
[61] You have heard their reproach, LORD, and all their plans against me,
[62] the lips of those that rose up against me, and their plots against me all day long.
[63] You see their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
[64] You will pay them back, LORD, according to the work of their hands.
[65] You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
[66] You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.