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3:1  I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord’s wrath.
3:2  He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light;
3:3  indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.
3:4  He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.
3:5  He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
3:6  He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.
3:7  He has walled me in so that I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.
3:8  Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.
3:9  He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.
3:10  Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding,
3:11  he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help.
3:12  He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
3:13  He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver.
3:14  I became the laughing-stock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
3:15  He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink.
3:16  He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust.
3:17  I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.
3:18  So I say, ‘My splendour is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.’
3:19  I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
3:20  I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
3:21  Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
3:22  Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
3:23  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
3:24  I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’
3:25  The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
3:26  it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
3:27  It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
3:28  Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him.
3:29  Let him bury his face in the dust – there may yet be hope.
3:30  Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.
3:31  For no one is cast off by the Lord for ever.
3:32  Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
3:33  For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.
3:34  To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land,
3:35  to deny people their rights before the Most High,
3:36  to deprive them of justice – would not the Lord see such things?
3:37  Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
3:38  Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?
3:39  Why should the living complain when punished for their sins?
3:40  Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.
3:41  Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say:
3:42  ‘We have sinned and rebelled and you have not forgiven.
3:43  ‘You have covered yourself with anger and pursued us; you have slain without pity.
3:44  You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.
3:45  You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
3:46  ‘All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us.
3:47  We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction.’
3:48  Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed.
3:49  My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief,
3:50  until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees.
3:51  What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city.
3:52  Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird.
3:53  They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me;
3:54  the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish.
3:55  I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit.
3:56  You heard my plea: ‘Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.’
3:57  You came near when I called you, and you said, ‘Do not fear.’
3:58  You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.
3:59  Lord, you have seen the wrong done to me. Uphold my cause!
3:60  You have seen the depth of their vengeance, all their plots against me.
3:61  Lord, you have heard their insults, all their plots against me –
3:62  what my enemies whisper and mutter against me all day long.
3:63  Look at them! Sitting or standing, they mock me in their songs.
3:64  Pay them back what they deserve, Lord, for what their hands have done.
3:65  Put a veil over their hearts, and may your curse be on them!
3:66  Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.