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3:1  I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;
3:2  he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
3:3  surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
3:4  He has made my flesh and my skin waste away, and broken my bones;
3:5  he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
3:6  he has made me dwell 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 to me like a bear lying in wait, like 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 drove into my heart the arrows of his quiver;
3:14  I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the burden of their 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, and 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 my expectation from the Lord.”
3:19  Remember my affliction and my bitterness, the wormwood and the 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 thy 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 a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
3:28  Let him sit alone in silence when he has laid it on him;
3:29  let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope;
3:30  let him give his cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults.
3:31  For the Lord will not cast off for ever,
3:32  but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
3:33  for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.
3:34  To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
3:35  to turn aside the right of a man in the presence of the Most High,
3:36  to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.
3:37  Who has commanded and it came to pass, unless the Lord has ordained it?
3:38  Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and evil come?
3:39  Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?
3:40  Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!
3:41  Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:
3:42  “We have transgressed and rebelled, and thou hast not forgiven.
3:43  “Thou hast wrapped thyself with anger and pursued us, slaying without pity;
3:44  thou hast wrapped thyself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through.
3:45  Thou hast made us offscouring and refuse among the peoples.
3:46  “All our enemies rail 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 the daughter 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 maidens of my city.
3:52  “I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause;
3:53  they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me;
3:54  water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost.’
3:55  “I called on thy name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit;
3:56  thou didst hear my plea, ‘Do not close thine ear to my cry for help!’
3:57  Thou didst come near when I called on thee; thou didst say, ‘Do not fear!’
3:58  “Thou hast taken up my cause, O Lord, thou hast redeemed my life.
3:59  Thou hast seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; judge thou my cause.
3:60  Thou hast seen all their vengeance, all their devices against me.
3:61  “Thou hast heard their taunts, O Lord, all their devices against me.
3:62  The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.
3:63  Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the burden of their songs.
3:64  “Thou wilt requite them, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
3:65  Thou wilt give them dullness of heart; thy curse will be on them.
3:66  Thou wilt pursue them in anger and destroy them from under thy heavens, O Lord.”