1I am a man who has seen misery under the rod of Yahweh's fury.

2He drove me away and caused me to walk in darkness rather than light.

3Surely he turned his hand against me again and again, the whole day long.

4He made my flesh and my skin waste away; he broke my bones.

5He built up siege works against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

6He made me live in dark places, like those who died long ago.

7He built a wall around me and I cannot escape. He made my chains heavy

8and though I call out and cry for help, he shut out my prayer.

9He blocked my path with a wall of hewn stone; he made my paths crooked.

10He is like a bear waiting to ambush me, a lion in hiding;

11he turned aside my paths, he has made me desolate.

12He bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.

13He pierced my kidneys with the arrows of his quiver.

14I became a laughingstock to all my people, the object of their taunting all day long.

15He filled me with bitterness and forced me to drink wormwood.

16He has made my teeth grind with gravel, and he made me cower in the ashes.

17My soul is deprived of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is.

18So I say, “My endurance has perished and so has my hope in Yahweh.”

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

20I continually remember it and I am bowed down within me.

21But I call this to mind and therefore I have hope:

22The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases and his compassions never end,

23they are new every morning; your faithfulness is great.

24“Yahweh is my inheritance,” I said, therefore I will hope in him.

25Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the one who seeks him.

26It is good to wait silently for the salvation of Yahweh.

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

28Let him sit alone in silence, when it is laid upon him.

29Let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope.

30Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes him, and let him be filled to the full with reproach.

31For the Lord will not reject us forever,

32but though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

33For he does not afflict from his heart or torment the children of mankind.

34To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,

35to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High,

36to deny justice to a person—the Lord would not approve such things!

37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord decreed it?

38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and the good come?

39How can any person alive complain? How can a person complain about the punishment for his sins?

40Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to Yahweh.

41Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in the heavens:

42“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.

43You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us, you have killed and you have not spared.

44You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.

45You have made us like filthy scum and refuse among the nations.

46All our enemies curse us,

47panic and pitfall have come upon us, ruin and destruction.

48My eyes flow with streams of tears because my people are destroyed.

49My eyes will shed tears without ceasing, without relief,

50until Yahweh from heaven looks down and sees.

51My eyes cause me grief because of all the daughters of my city.

52I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies; they hunted me without a reason.

53They cast me into a pit and they threw a stone on me,

54and they caused waters to overflow, covering my head. I said, 'I have been cut off!'

55I called on your name, Yahweh, from the depths of the pit.

56You heard my voice when I said, 'Do not close your ear to my cry for help.'

57You came near on the day I called on you; you said, 'Do not fear.'

58Lord, you defended my case, you saved my life!

59Yahweh, you have seen the wrong they have done to me; judge my case.

60You have seen their insults, all their plots against me—

61You have heard their scorn, Yahweh, and all their plans regarding me.

62The lips and the accusations of my enemies come against me all the day.

63Look at how they sit and then rise up; they mock me with their songs.

64Pay back to them, Yahweh, according to what they have done.

65You will let their hearts be shameless! May your condemnation be upon them!

66You pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens, Yahweh!”