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

2He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not light.

3Indeed, He has turned back, He has turned His hand against me all the day.

4He has worn out my flesh and my skin, He has broken my bones.

5He has piled up against me, And surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

6He has made me dwell in dark places Like the dead of old.

7He has hedged me in and I do not 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 hewn stone, He has made my paths crooked.

10He is to me like a bear lying in wait, A lion in hiding.

11He has turned aside my ways And torn me in pieces, He has laid me waste.

12He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.

13He made the arrows of His quiver pierce my kidneys.

14I have been a mockery to all my people, Their mocking song all the day.

15He has filled me with bitterness, He drenched me with wormwood.

16And He has broken my teeth with gravel, He has covered me with ashes.

17And You have removed my being far from peace, I have forgotten goodness.

18And I said, “My strength and my expectancy Have perished from יהוה.”

19Remember my affliction and my anguish, The wormwood and the gall.

20Your being indeed remembers And bows down upon me.

21This I recall to my mind, therefore I wait:

22The kindnesses of יהוה! For we have not been consumed, For His compassions have not ended.

23They are new every morning, Great is Your trustworthiness.

24“יהוה is my Portion,” says my being, “Therefore I wait for Him!”

25יהוה is good to those waiting for Him, To the being who seeks Him.

26It is good – both to wait and to be silent, For the deliverance of יהוה.

27It is good for a man to bear a yoke in his youth.

28Let him sit alone and be silent, Because He has laid it on him.

29Let him put his mouth in the dust, There might yet be expectancy.

30Let him give his cheek To the one who smites him – He is filled with reproach.

31For יהוה does not cast off forever.

32For though He afflicted, Yet He shall show compassion According to the greatness of His kindnesses.

33For He has not afflicted from His heart, Nor does He grieve the children of men.

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

35To turn aside the right-ruling of man Before the face of the Most High,

36Or wrong a man in his cause – This יהוה does not approve.

37Who was it that spoke, And it came to be! Has יהוה not commanded it?

38Do not the evils and the good Come out of the mouth of the Most High?

39What? Should mankind complain, A living man, because of his sins?

40Let us search and examine our ways, And turn back to יהוה.

41Let us lift our hearts and hands To Ěl in the heavens and say:

42We, we have transgressed and rebelled. You, You have not forgiven.

43You have wrapped Yourself With displeasure and pursued us. You have slain, You have not shown compassion.

44You have wrapped Yourself With a cloud, so that prayer does not pass through.

45You make us as scum and refuse In the midst of the peoples.

46All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.

47Fear and a snare have come upon us, Shame and ruin.

48Streams of water run down my eye For the ruin of the daughter of my people.

49My eye flows out and does not cease, Without stopping,

50Until יהוה looks down and sees from the heavens.

51My eye pains my being Because of all the daughters of my city.

52My enemies hunted me down Like a bird, without cause.

53They have cut off my life in the pit, And they threw stones at me.

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

55I called on Your Name, O יהוה, from the lowest pit.

56You have heard my voice, Do not hide Your ear from my groaning, From my outcry!

57You drew near on the day I called on You; You said, “Do not fear!”

58O יהוה, You did plead the case for my being; You have redeemed my life.

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

60You have seen all their vengeance, All their plans against me.

61You have heard their reproach, O יהוה, all their plans against me,

62The lips of those rising against me, And their scheming against me all the day.

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

64Repay them, O יהוה, According to the work of their hands.

65Give them a veiled heart, Your curse upon them!

66Pursue and destroy them in displeasure, From under the heavens of יהוה.