New American Standard Bible 1995

New Living Translation

1I am the man who has seen affliction Because of 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 me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.

2He has led me into darkness, shutting out all light.

3Surely against me He has turned His hand Repeatedly all the day.

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

4He has caused my flesh and my skin to 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 encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.

5He has besieged and surrounded me with anguish and distress.

6In dark places He has made me dwell, Like those who have long been dead.

6He has buried me in a dark place, like those long dead.

7He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.

7He has walled me in, and I cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains.

8Even when I cry out and call 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 hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

9He has blocked my way with a high stone wall; he has made my road crooked.

10He is to me like a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in secret places.

10He has hidden like a bear or a lion, waiting to attack me.

11He has turned aside my ways and torn 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 the arrow.

12He has drawn his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

13He made the arrows of His quiver To enter into my inward parts.

13He shot his arrows deep into my heart.

14I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their mocking song all the day.

14My own people laugh at me. All day long they sing their mocking songs.

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

15He has filled me with bitterness and given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink.

16He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.

16He has made me chew on gravel. He has rolled me in the dust.

17My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

17Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is.

18So I say, "My strength has perished, And 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 wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

19The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words.

20Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me.

20I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss.

21This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.

21Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:

22The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.

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 have 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 person who seeks Him.

25The LORD is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.

26It is good that he waits silently 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 should 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 and be silent Since He has laid it on him.

28Let them sit alone in silence beneath the LORD’s demands.

29Let him put his mouth in the dust, Perhaps there is hope.

29Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last.

30Let him give his cheek to the smiter, Let him be filled with reproach.

30Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies.

31For the Lord will not reject forever,

31For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever.

32For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness.

32Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love.

33For He does not afflict willingly Or grieve the sons of men.

33For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.

34To crush under His feet All the prisoners of the land,

34If people crush underfoot all the prisoners of the land,

35To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High,

35if they deprive others of their rights in defiance of the Most High,

36To defraud a man in his lawsuit-- Of these things the Lord does not approve.

36if they twist justice in the courts— doesn’t the Lord see all these things?

37Who is there who speaks and it comes 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 both good and ill go forth?

38Does not the Most High send both calamity and good?

39Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins?

39Then why should we, mere humans, complain when we are punished for our sins?

40Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the LORD.

40Instead, let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the LORD.

41We lift up our heart and hands Toward God in heaven;

41Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven and say,

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

42“We have sinned and rebelled, and you have not forgiven us.

43You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and have not spared.

43“You have engulfed us with your anger, chased us down, and slaughtered us without mercy.

44You have covered 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 mere offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.

45You have discarded us as refuse and garbage among the nations.

46All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

46“All our enemies have spoken out against us.

47Panic and pitfall have befallen us, Devastation and destruction;

47We are filled with fear, for we are trapped, devastated, and ruined.”

48My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

48Tears stream from my eyes because of the destruction of my people!

49My eyes pour down unceasingly, Without stopping,

49My tears flow endlessly; they will not stop

50Until the LORD looks down And sees from heaven.

50until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.

51My eyes bring pain to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.

51My heart is breaking over the fate of all the women of Jerusalem.

52My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird;

52My enemies, whom I have never harmed, hunted me down like a bird.

53They have silenced me in the pit And have placed a stone on me.

53They threw me into a pit and dropped stones on me.

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

54The water rose over my head, and I cried out, “This is the end!”

55I called on Your name, O LORD, Out of the lowest pit.

55But I called on your name, LORD, from deep within the pit.

56You have heard my voice, "Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help."

56You heard me when I cried, “Listen to my pleading! Hear my cry for help!”

57You drew near when I called on You; You said, "Do not fear!"

57Yes, you came when I called; you told me, “Do not fear.”

58O Lord, You have pleaded my soul's cause; You have redeemed my life.

58Lord, you have come to my defense; you have redeemed my life.

59O LORD, You have seen my oppression; Judge my case.

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 schemes against me.

60You have seen the vengeful plots my enemies have laid against me.

61You have heard their reproach, O LORD, All their schemes against me.

61LORD, you have heard the vile names they call me. You know all about the plans they have made.

62The lips of my assailants and their whispering Are against me all day long.

62My enemies whisper and mutter as they plot against me all day long.

63Look on their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song.

63Look at them! Whether they sit or stand, I am the object of their mocking songs.

64You will recompense 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 hardness 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 the heavens of the LORD!

66Chase them down in your anger, destroying them beneath the LORD’s heavens.

New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit //www.lockman.org

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.