1I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.

2He has led me and made me go in darkness and not into light.

3Surely He has turned, He has turned His hand against me again and again all day long.

4He has wasted my flesh and my skin; He has broken my bones.

5He has besieged me and has encircled me with bitterness and tribulation.

6He has made me live in dark places, like those who have long been dead.

7He has set a fence around me so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.

8Also when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.

9He has blocked my ways with cut stone; He has made my paths crooked.

10He was as a bear lying in wait for me, as a lion in secret places.

11He has turned my ways aside and has torn me to pieces. He hasmade me desolate.

12He has bent His bow and hasset me as a mark for the arrow.

13He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my inward parts.

14I was a mockery to all my people, their song all the day.

15He has filled me with bitterness and made me drunk with wormwood.

16He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; He has made me to wallow in ashes.

17And my soul is removed far off from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

18And I said, "My strength and my hope from the LORD are perished."

19Remember my affliction and my anguish, the wormwood and bitterness of gall.

20My soul vividly remembers and is bowed down within me.

21I recall this to my mind; therefore I have hope.

22It is by the LORD'S mercies that we are not destroyed, because His compassions 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 that one should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

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

28Let him sit alone and in silence because He laid it upon him.

29He puts his mouth in the dust, if perhaps there may yet be hope.

30Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled with reproach.

31For the LORD will not cast off forever;

32For though He causes grief, yet He will have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.

33For He does not afflict willingly, nor does He grieve the children of men;

34To crush all the prisoners of the earth under his feet;

35To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High;

36To subvert a man in his cause--of this the LORD does not approve.

37Who is this who speaks, and it comes to pass, when the LORD does not ordain it?

38From the mouth of the Most High does not the bad and the good proceed?

39Wherefore does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

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

41Let us lift up our heart and hands to God in heaven.

42We have transgressed and have rebelled; You have not pardoned.

43You have covered Yourself with anger and pursued us; You have slain unsparingly;

44You have covered Yourself with a cloud that our prayer should not pass through.

45You have made us as the offscouring and refuse among the people.

46All our enemies have opened their mouths railing against us.

47Fear and a snare have come upon us, desolation and destruction.

48Streams of water run down my eye for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49My eye flows down and does not cease, without any intermission,

50Until the LORD shall look down and behold from heaven.

51My eye afflicted my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

52My enemies have hunted me, like a bird, without cause.

53They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

54Waters flowed over my head; then I said, "I am cut off."

55I called upon Your name, O LORD, out of the lowest dungeon.

56You have heard my voice: "Do not hide Your ear at my sighing, at my cry for help."

57You drew near in the day that I called upon You; You said, "Fear not."

58O LORD, You have pleaded for the causes of my soul; You have redeemed my life.

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

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

61You have heard their taunt, O LORD, all their imaginations against me;

62The lips of those who rose up against me, and their scheming against me all the day.

63Behold at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their mocking song.

64You will render to them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

65You will give them dullness of heart--Your curse be on them!

66You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.