| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; | 1I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the LORD’s anger. |
| 2he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; | 2He has led me into darkness, shutting out all light. |
| 3surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. | 3He has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. |
| 4He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; | 4He has made my skin and flesh grow old. He has broken my bones. |
| 5he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; | 5He has besieged and surrounded me with anguish and distress. |
| 6he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. | 6He has buried me in a dark place, like those long dead. |
| 7He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; | 7He has walled me in, and I cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains. |
| 8though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; | 8And though I cry and shout, he has shut out my prayers. |
| 9he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. | 9He has blocked my way with a high stone wall; he has made my road crooked. |
| 10He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; | 10He has hidden like a bear or a lion, waiting to attack me. |
| 11he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; | 11He has dragged me off the path and torn me in pieces, leaving me helpless and devastated. |
| 12he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. | 12He has drawn his bow and made me the target for his arrows. |
| 13He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; | 13He shot his arrows deep into my heart. |
| 14I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. | 14My own people laugh at me. All day long they sing their mocking songs. |
| 15He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. | 15He has filled me with bitterness and given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink. |
| 16He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; | 16He has made me chew on gravel. He has rolled me in the dust. |
| 17my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; | 17Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is. |
| 18so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.” | 18I cry out, “My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the LORD is lost!” |
| 19Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! | 19The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. |
| 20My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. | 20I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. |
| 21But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: | 21Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: |
| 22The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; | 22The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. |
| 23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. | 23Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. |
| 24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” | 24I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” |
| 25The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. | 25The LORD is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. |
| 26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. | 26So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD. |
| 27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. | 27And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline: |
| 28Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; | 28Let them sit alone in silence beneath the LORD’s demands. |
| 29let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; | 29Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last. |
| 30let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. | 30Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies. |
| 31For the Lord will not cast off forever, | 31For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. |
| 32but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; | 32Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love. |
| 33for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. | 33For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow. |
| 34To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, | 34If people crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land, |
| 35to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, | 35if they deprive others of their rights in defiance of the Most High, |
| 36to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. | 36if they twist justice in the courts— doesn’t the Lord see all these things? |
| 37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? | 37Who can command things to happen without the Lord’s permission? |
| 38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? | 38Does not the Most High send both calamity and good? |
| 39Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? | 39Then why should we, mere humans, complain when we are punished for our sins? |
| 40Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD! | 40Instead, let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the LORD. |
| 41Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: | 41Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven and say, |
| 42“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven. | 42“We have sinned and rebelled, and you have not forgiven us. |
| 43“You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity; | 43“You have engulfed us with your anger, chased us down, and slaughtered us without mercy. |
| 44you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. | 44You have hidden yourself in a cloud so our prayers cannot reach you. |
| 45You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples. | 45You have discarded us as refuse and garbage among the nations. |
| 46“All our enemies open their mouths against us; | 46“All our enemies have spoken out against us. |
| 47panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction; | 47We are filled with fear, for we are trapped, devastated, and ruined.” |
| 48my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. | 48Tears stream from my eyes because of the destruction of my people! |
| 49“My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, | 49My tears flow endlessly; they will not stop |
| 50until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees; | 50until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees. |
| 51my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city. | 51My heart is breaking over the fate of all the women of Jerusalem. |
| 52“I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; | 52My enemies, whom I have never harmed, hunted me down like a bird. |
| 53they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me; | 53They threw me into a pit and dropped stones on me. |
| 54water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost.’ | 54The water rose over my head, and I cried out, “This is the end!” |
| 55“I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; | 55But I called on your name, LORD, from deep within the pit. |
| 56you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’ | 56You heard me when I cried, “Listen to my pleading! Hear my cry for help!” |
| 57You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ | 57Yes, you came when I called; you told me, “Do not fear.” |
| 58“You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. | 58Lord, you have come to my defense; you have redeemed my life. |
| 59You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause. | 59You have seen the wrong they have done to me, LORD. Be my judge, and prove me right. |
| 60You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. | 60You have seen the vengeful plots my enemies have laid against me. |
| 61“You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me. | 61LORD, you have heard the vile names they call me. You know all about the plans they have made. |
| 62The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. | 62My enemies whisper and mutter as they plot against me all day long. |
| 63Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts. | 63Look at them! Whether they sit or stand, I am the object of their mocking songs. |
| 64“You will repay them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. | 64Pay them back, LORD, for all the evil they have done. |
| 65You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them. | 65Give them hard and stubborn hearts, and then let your curse fall on them! |
| 66You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD.” | 66Chase them down in your anger, destroying them beneath the LORD’s heavens. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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