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3:1  I am one who has known affliction under the rod of God’s anger,
3:2  One whom he has driven and forced to walk in darkness, not in light;
3:3  Against me alone he turns his hand— again and again all day long.
3:4  He has worn away my flesh and my skin, he has broken my bones;
3:5  He has besieged me all around with poverty and hardship;
3:6  He has left me to dwell in dark places like those long dead.
3:7  He has hemmed me in with no escape, weighed me down with chains;
3:8  Even when I cry for help, he stops my prayer;
3:9  He has hemmed in my ways with fitted stones, and made my paths crooked.
3:10  He has been a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding!
3:11  He turned me aside and tore me apart, leaving me ravaged.
3:12  He bent his bow, and set me up as a target for his arrow.
3:13  He pierced my kidneys with shafts from his quiver.
3:14  I have become a laughingstock to all my people, their taunt all day long;
3:15  He has sated me with bitterness, filled me with wormwood.
3:16  He has made me eat gravel, trampled me into the dust;
3:17  My life is deprived of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is;
3:18  My enduring hope, I said, has perished before the Lord.
3:19  The thought of my wretched homelessness is wormwood and poison;
3:20  Remembering it over and over, my soul is downcast.
3:21  But this I will call to mind; therefore I will hope:
3:22  The Lord’s acts of mercy are not exhausted, his compassion is not spent;
3:23  They are renewed each morning— great is your faithfulness!
3:24  The Lord is my portion, I tell myself, therefore I will hope in him.
3:25  The Lord is good to those who trust in him, to the one that seeks him;
3:26  It is good to hope in silence for the Lord’s deliverance.
3:27  It is good for a person, when young, to bear the yoke,
3:28  To sit alone and in silence, when its weight lies heavy,
3:29  To put one’s mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope—
3:30  To offer one’s cheek to be struck, to be filled with disgrace.
3:31  For the Lord does not reject forever;
3:32  Though he brings grief, he takes pity, according to the abundance of his mercy;
3:33  He does not willingly afflict or bring grief to human beings.
3:34  That someone tramples underfoot all the prisoners in the land,
3:35  Or denies justice to anyone in the very sight of the Most High,
3:36  Or subverts a person’s lawsuit— does the Lord not see?
3:37  Who speaks so that it comes to pass, unless the Lord commands it?
3:38  Is it not at the word of the Most High that both good and bad take place?
3:39  What should the living complain about? about their sins!
3:40  Let us search and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!
3:41  Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands toward God in heaven!
3:42  We have rebelled and been obstinate; you have not forgiven us.
3:43  You wrapped yourself in wrath and pursued us, killing without pity;
3:44  You wrapped yourself in a cloud, which no prayer could pierce.
3:45  You have made us filth and rubbish among the peoples.
3:46  They have opened their mouths against us, all our enemies;
3:47  Panic and the pit have been our lot, desolation and destruction;
3:48  My eyes stream with tears over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
3:49  My eyes will flow without ceasing, without rest,
3:50  Until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees.
3:51  I am tormented by the sight of all the daughters of my city.
3:52  Without cause, my enemies snared me as though I were a bird;
3:53  They tried to end my life in the pit, pelting me with stones.
3:54  The waters flowed over my head: and I said, “I am lost!”
3:55  I have called upon your name, O Lord, from the bottom of the pit;
3:56  You heard me call, “Do not let your ear be deaf to my cry for help.”
3:57  You drew near on the day I called you; you said, “Do not fear!”
3:58  You pleaded my case, Lord, you redeemed my life.
3:59  You see, Lord, how I am wronged; do me justice!
3:60  You see all their vindictiveness, all their plots against me.
3:61  You hear their reproach, Lord, all their plots against me,
3:62  The whispered murmurings of my adversaries, against me all day long;
3:63  Look! Whether they sit or stand, I am the butt of their taunt.
3:64  Give them what they deserve, Lord, according to their deeds;
3:65  Give them hardness of heart; your curse be upon them;
3:66  Pursue them in wrath and destroy them from under the Lord’s heaven!