| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; | 1I am the man who has experienced affliction from the rod of his wrath. |
| 2he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; | 2He drove me into captivity and made me walk in darkness and not light. |
| 3surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. | 3He repeatedly attacks me, he turns his hand against me all day long. |
| 4He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; | 4He has made my mortal skin waste away; he has broken my bones. |
| 5he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; | 5He has besieged and surrounded me with bitter hardship. |
| 6he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. | 6He has made me reside in deepest darkness like those who died long ago. |
| 7He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; | 7He has walled me in so that I cannot get out; he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains. |
| 8though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; | 8Also, when I cry out desperately for help, he has shut out my prayer. |
| 9he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. | 9He has blocked every road I take with a wall of hewn stones; he has made every path impassable. |
| 10He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; | 10To me he is like a bear lying in ambush, like a hidden lion stalking its prey. |
| 11he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; | 11He has obstructed my paths and torn me to pieces; he has made me desolate. |
| 12he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. | 12He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrow. |
| 13He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; | 13He shot his arrows into my heart. |
| 14I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. | 14I have become the laughingstock of all people, their mocking song all day long. |
| 15He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. | 15He has given me my fill of bitter herbs and made me drunk with bitterness. |
| 16He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; | 16He ground my teeth in gravel; he trampled me in the dust. |
| 17my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; | 17I am deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. |
| 18so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.” | 18So I said, "My endurance has expired; I have lost all hope of deliverance from the LORD." |
| 19Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! | 19Remember my impoverished and homeless condition, which is a bitter poison. |
| 20My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. | 20I continually think about this, and I am depressed. |
| 21But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: | 21But this I call to mind; therefore I have hope: |
| 22The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; | 22The LORD's loyal kindness never ceases; his compassions never end. |
| 23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. | 23They are fresh every morning; your faithfulness is abundant! |
| 24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” | 24"My portion is the Lord," I have said to myself, so I will put my 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 trust in him, to the one who seeks him. |
| 26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. | 26It is good to wait patiently for deliverance from the LORD. |
| 27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. | 27It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. |
| 28Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; | 28Let a person sit alone in silence, when the LORD is disciplining him. |
| 29let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; | 29Let him bury his face in the dust; perhaps there is hope. |
| 30let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. | 30Let him offer his cheek to the one who hits him; let him have his fill of insults. |
| 31For the Lord will not cast off forever, | 31For the Lord will not reject us forever. |
| 32but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; | 32Though he causes us grief, he then has compassion on us according to the abundance of his loyal kindness. |
| 33for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. | 33For he is not predisposed to afflict or to grieve people. |
| 34To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, | 34To crush underfoot all the earth's prisoners, |
| 35to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, | 35to deprive a person of his rights in the presence of the Most High, |
| 36to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. | 36to defraud a person in a lawsuit--the Lord does not approve of such things! |
| 37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? | 37Whose command was ever fulfilled unless the Lord decreed it? |
| 38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? | 38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that everything comes--both calamity and blessing? |
| 39Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? | 39Why should any living person complain when punished for his sins? |
| 40Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD! | 40Let us carefully examine our ways, and let us return to the LORD. |
| 41Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: | 41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven: |
| 42“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven. | 42"We have blatantly rebelled; you have not forgiven." |
| 43“You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity; | 43You shrouded yourself with anger and then pursued us; you killed without mercy. |
| 44you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. | 44You shrouded yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through. |
| 45You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples. | 45You make us like filthy scum in the estimation of the nations. |
| 46“All our enemies open their mouths against us; | 46All our enemies have gloated over us; |
| 47panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction; | 47Panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction. |
| 48my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. | 48Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed. |
| 49“My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, | 49Tears flow from my eyes and will not stop; there will be no break |
| 50until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees; | 50until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees what has happened. |
| 51my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city. | 51What my eyes see grieves me--all the suffering of the daughters in my city. |
| 52“I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; | 52For no good reason my enemies hunted me down like a bird. |
| 53they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me; | 53They shut me up in a pit and threw stones at me. |
| 54water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost.’ | 54The waters closed over my head; I thought I was about to die. |
| 55“I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; | 55I have called on your name, O LORD, from the deepest pit. |
| 56you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’ | 56You heard my plea: "Do not close your ears to my cry for relief!" |
| 57You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ | 57You came near on the day I called to you; you said, "Do not fear!" |
| 58“You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. | 58O Lord, you championed my cause, you redeemed my life. |
| 59You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause. | 59You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; pronounce judgment on my behalf! |
| 60You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. | 60You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. |
| 61“You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me. | 61You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots against me. |
| 62The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. | 62My assailants revile and conspire against me all day long. |
| 63Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts. | 63Watch them from morning to evening; 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 what they deserve, O LORD, according to what they have done. |
| 65You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them. | 65Give them a distraught heart; may your curse be on them! |
| 66You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD.” | 66Pursue them in anger and eradicate them from under the LORD's heaven. |
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