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

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

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

     4He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away,
            He has broken my bones.

     5He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.

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

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

     8Even when I cry out and call for help,
            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,
            Like a lion in secret places.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     18So I say, “My strength has perished,
            And so has my hope from the LORD.”

Hope of Relief in God’s Mercy

     19Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

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

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

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

     23They are new every morning;
            Great is Thy faithfulness.

     24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
            “Therefore I have hope in Him.”

     25The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
            To the person who seeks Him.

     26It is good that he waits silently
            For the salvation of the LORD.

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

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

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

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

     31For the Lord will not reject forever,

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

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

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

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

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

     37Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass,
            Unless the Lord has commanded it?

     38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
            That both good and ill go forth?

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

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

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

     42We have transgressed and rebelled,
            Thou hast not pardoned.

     43Thou hast covered Thyself with anger
            And pursued us;
            Thou hast slain and hast not spared.

     44Thou hast covered Thyself with a cloud
            So that no prayer can pass through.

     45Mere offscouring and refuse Thou hast made us
            In the midst of the peoples.

     46All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

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

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

     49My eyes pour down unceasingly,
            Without stopping,

     50Until the LORD looks down
            And sees from heaven.

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

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

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

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

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

     56Thou hast heard my voice,
            “Do not hide Thine ear from my prayer for relief,
            From my cry for help.”

     57Thou didst draw near when I called on Thee;
            Thou didst say, “Do not fear!”

     58O Lord, Thou didst plead my soul’s cause;
            Thou hast redeemed my life.

     59O LORD, Thou hast seen my oppression;
            Judge my case.

     60Thou hast seen all their vengeance,
            All their schemes against me.

     61Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD,
            All their schemes against me.

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

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

     64Thou wilt recompense them, O LORD,
            According to the work of their hands.

     65Thou wilt give them hardness of heart,
            Thy curse will be on them.

     66Thou wilt pursue them in anger and destroy them
            From under the heavens of the LORD!