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3:1  I am one who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath;
3:2  he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
3:3  against me alone he turns his hand, again and again, all day long.
3:4  He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;
3:5  he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
3:6  he has made me sit in darkness like the dead of long ago.
3:7  He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has put heavy chains on me;
3:8  though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;
3:9  he has blocked my ways with hewn stones; he has made my paths crooked.
3:10  He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;
3:11  he led me off my way and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
3:12  he bent his bow and set me as a mark for his arrow.
3:13  He shot into my vitals the arrows of his quiver;
3:14  I have become the laughingstock of all my people, the object of their taunt songs all day long.
3:15  He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.
3:16  He has made my teeth grind on gravel; he has made me cower in ashes;
3:17  my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is;
3:18  so I say, “Gone is my glory and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.”
3:19  The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!
3:20  My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.
3:21  But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
3:22  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
3:23  they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
3:24  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
3:25  The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
3:26  It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
3:27  It is good for one to bear the yoke in youth,
3:28  to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it,
3:29  to put one’s mouth to the dust (there may yet be hope),
3:30  to give one’s cheek to the smiter and be filled with insults.
3:31  For the Lord will not reject forever.
3:32  Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
3:33  for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.
3:34  When all the prisoners of the land are crushed under foot,
3:35  when justice is perverted in the presence of the Most High,
3:36  when one’s case is subverted— does the Lord not see it?
3:37  Who can command and have it done, if the Lord has not ordained it?
3:38  Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that evil and good come?
3:39  Why should any who draw breath complain about the punishment of their sins?
3:40  Let us test and examine our ways and return to the Lord.
3:41  Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands to God in heaven.
3:42  We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
3:43  You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity;
3:44  you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
3:45  You have made us filth and rubbish among the peoples.
3:46  All our enemies have opened their mouths against us;
3:47  panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction.
3:48  My eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of my people.
3:49  My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite,
3:50  until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees.
3:51  My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the young women in my city.
3:52  Those who were my enemies without cause have hunted me like a bird;
3:53  they flung me alive into a pit and hurled stones on me;
3:54  water closed over my head; I said, “I am lost.”
3:55  I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit;
3:56  you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear to my cry for help, but give me relief!”
3:57  You came near when I called on you; you said, “Do not fear!”
3:58  You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life.
3:59  You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; judge my cause.
3:60  You have seen all their malice, all their plots against me.
3:61  You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me.
3:62  The whispers and murmurs of my assailants are against me all day long.
3:63  Whether they sit or rise—see, I am the object of their taunt songs.
3:64  Pay them back for their deeds, O Lord, according to the work of their hands!
3:65  Give them anguish of heart; your curse be on them!
3:66  Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the Lord’s heavens.