¹I am the man who has seen affliction

By the rod of his wrath.

²He has driven me and removed me

Into darkness, and not light.

³Surely he has turned against me;

His hand is adverse to me all day long.

⁴He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away;

He has shattered my bones.

⁵He has built the case against me

And surrounded me with noxiousness and weariness.

⁶He has made me sit in darkness,

Like the age-abidingly dead.

⁷He has fenced me in

And I cannot go out.

He has made my fetter heavy.

⁸Although I cry out and shout,

He shuts out my prayer.

⁹He has blocked my ways with hewn stones;

He has overturned my paths.

¹⁰He is a bear in ambush to me

– A lion in a covert place.

¹¹He has deflected me from my ways

And torn me to pieces;

He has made me desolate.

¹²He has drawn his bow

And set me as a target for the arrow.

¹³He has shot the contents of his quiver into my kidneys.

¹⁴I have become a laughing stock to all my people,

In their song all day long.

¹⁵He has filled me with bitter herbs;

He has given me wormwood to drink.

¹⁶And he has crushed my teeth with gravel;

He has covered me with ash.

¹⁷And you have been averse to my well-being;

I have forgotten what goodness is.

¹⁸And I said, “My endurance and my hope in the Lord

Have faded away.”

¹⁹Remember my affliction and wandering,

The wormwood and the venom.

²⁰Oh do remember,

And may your soul sink down onto me.

²¹I will lay this to heart;

This is why I will be in expectation:

²²The Lord's kind deeds are such

That we are not finished

– That his mercies have not come to an end.

²³The mornings bring these anew;

Great is your faithfulness.

²⁴“My portion is the Lord,”

My inner being has said,

“Which is why I will await him.”

²⁵The Lord is good to those who put their hope in him

– To the person who seeks him.

²⁶It is good to be in expectation and quiet for the Lord's salvation.

²⁷It is good for a man

That he bears his yoke in his youth.

²⁸He sits alone and is silent,

For he laid it on him.

²⁹He puts his mouth in the dust

And says,

“Perhaps there is hope.”

³⁰He gives his cheek to him who strikes him;

He is steeped in reproach.

³¹For the Lord^* will not repudiate us age-abidingly.

³²Although he causes grief,

Yet he shows mercy

According to the abundance of his kindness.

³³For he does not afflict wholeheartedly

Nor so grieve the sons of men.

³⁴Neither on crushing all the prisoners of the earth under one's feet,

³⁵Nor on perverting the course of justice of a man

Against the intention of the Most High,

³⁶Nor on doing violence to a man's contention

Does the Lord^* look favourably.

³⁷Who is it who spoke, and it came to pass,

If the Lord^* did not command it?

³⁸Do not bad things and good

Issue from the mouth of the Most High?

³⁹How a man who is alive complains!

– A man confronted by his sin.

⁴⁰Let us search our ways and investigate

And return to the Lord.

⁴¹Let us lift up our hearts on our hands

To God in the heavens.

⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled,

And you have not forgiven us.

⁴³You have covered us with anger and pursued us;

You have killed us and not shown pity.

⁴⁴You have covered yourself with a cloud,

So that a prayer cannot pass through.

⁴⁵You have made us an offscouring

And a reject in the company of the nations.

⁴⁶All our enemies gape at us.

⁴⁷Fear and ruin are our lot

With desolation and devastation.

⁴⁸Streams of water run down my eye

At the devastation of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹My eye is flowing and will not become quiet,

With no respite,

⁵⁰Until the Lord peers down

And looks from heaven.

⁵¹My eye is wearing on my spiritual condition

Because of all the daughters of the city.

⁵²My enemies have relentlessly hunted me,

Gratuitously, like a bird.

⁵³They have knocked my life down into the pit,

And they have thrown stones at me.

⁵⁴Waters overwhelmed me above my head.

I said, “I have been cut off.”

⁵⁵I called on your name, O Lord,

From the lowest pit.

⁵⁶You have heard my voice.

Do not turn a deaf ear to relieving me at my cry.

⁵⁷You drew near on the day

When I called on you,

And you said,

“Do not fear.”

⁵⁸You, O Lord^*, have defended the indictments against my person,

You have redeemed my life.

⁵⁹O Lord, you have seen my oppression;

Do defend my case.

⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance

– All their thoughts concerning me.

⁶¹You have heard their reproach,

O Lord – all their thoughts against me.

⁶²The lips of those who rise up against me

And their meditation

Are against me all day long.

⁶³Observe their sitting down and their rising up;

I am their derisive song.

⁶⁴Bring retribution on them, O Lord,

According to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵Give them a veiled heart

– Your curse on them.

⁶⁶Pursue them in anger,

And destroy them,

Under the heavens of the Lord.