CHAPTER 3
1I am the man who has seen affliction ℵ
by the rod of His wrath.
2Me He drove off, led away—
darkness and no light!
3Just to me He comes back,
turns His hand against me all day.
4He wasted my flesh and my skin. ב
He shattered my bones.
5He built up against me, encompassed me
with misery and suffering.
6He made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.
7He walled me in, I could not go out, ג
piled heavy bronze fetters upon me.
8Even though I cried out and shouted,
he blocked my prayer.
9He walled in my way with hewn stone,
He twisted my paths.
10A lurking bear He was to me, ד
a lion in hiding.
11My ways He led astray and He ripped me apart,
He made me desolate.
12He bent His bow
and stood me up as a target for the arrow.
13He drove into my innards ה
the shafts of His quiver.
14I became a laughingstock to all my people,
the theme of their taunts all day.
15He fed me full with bitterness,
gave me wormwood’s draught.
16He made my teeth crunch down on gravel, ו
crushed me in the dust.
17My life abandoned peace,
I forgot what was good.
18And I thought, “My strength
and my hope are lost before the LORD.”
19Recall my affliction and my wandering— ז
wormwood and poison.
20My very life does recall
and bends down upon me.
21Thus I answer to my heart,
therefore I yet hope:
22The LORD’s kindness has not ended, ח
for His mercies are not exhausted.
23They are renewed every morning.
Great is Your faithfulness.
24“My portion is the LORD,” I said.
therefore I yet hope for Him.
25Good is the LORD for those who look to Him, ט
for the person who seeks Him out.
26Good that he hopes in silence
for rescue from the LORD.
27Good is it for a man that he bear
a yoke in his youth.
28Let him sit alone and be silent י
29Let him put his mouth into the dust—
perhaps there still is hope.
30Let him offer his cheek to him who strikes him,
let him take his fill of disgrace.
31For the LORD will not abandon forever. כ
32Though He strikes with sorrow,
He will show mercy in His great kindness.
33For He does not afflict on purpose
and aggrieve the sons of men
34to crush beneath His feet ל
all the prisoners of the earth,
35to sidetrack the case of a man
before the presence of the Most High,
36to deflect a person in his plea—
the Master would not brook this.
37Who can speak and it comes about מ
if the Master has not decreed it?
38From the Most High’s mouth shall not issue
the evil and the good?
39Of what shall a living person complain,
a man for his offenses?
40Let us seek out and plumb our ways נ
that we come back to the LORD.
41Let us lift up our heart on our palms
to God in the heavens.
42We trespassed and rebelled—
You did not forgive.
43You enveloped us in anger and pursued us, ס
You slew and showed no pity.
44You enveloped Yourself in a cloud,
that prayer could not pass through.
45Filth and disgust You made us
in the midst of the peoples.
46They gaped with their mouths upon us, פ
all our enemies.
47Terror and trap they were for us,
48Rivers of tears my eye does shed
for the shattering of my people.
49My eye streams and is not still, ע
without respite
50till the LORD look out
and see from the heavens.
51My eyes have dealt ill to me
for all the daughters of my city.
52They have ensnared me like a bird, צ
my enemies for no cause.
53They have cut off my life in a pit
and cast stones at me.
54Waters whelmed over my head,
I thought, “I am gone.”
55I called Your name, O LORD ק
from the bottommost pit.
56My voice You have heard—
do not shut Your ear to my sigh, to my cry.
57You drew close on the day I called You,
You said, “Do not fear.”
58You pleaded, O Master, my cause, ר
You redeemed my life.
59You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done me.
Grant me justice!
60You have seen all their vindictiveness,
61You have heard their insults, O LORD, ש
all their schemes against me,
62the slurs of my foes and their prattle
against me all day.
63Look on their sitting and their rising—
I am the theme of their taunts.
64Pay them back their deserts, O LORD, ת
according to their own acts.
65Give them anguish of the heart,
Your curse upon them.
66Pursue in wrath and destroy them
from beneath the heavens of the LORD.