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3:1 I am the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath. 3:2 He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light. 3:3 Surely against me He has turned His hand Repeatedly all the day. 3:4 He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away, He has broken my bones. 3:5 He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship. 3:6 In dark places He has made me dwell, Like those who have long been dead. 3:7 He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy. 3:8 Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer. 3:9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked. 3:10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in secret places. 3:11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces; He has made me desolate. 3:12 He bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow. 3:13 He made the arrows of His quiver To enter into my inward parts. 3:14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their mocking song all the day. 3:15 He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood. 3:16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust. 3:17 My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. 3:18 So I say, "My strength has perished, And so has my hope from the Lord." 3:19 Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. 3:20 Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. 3:21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 3:22 The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. 3:23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 3:24 "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him." 3:25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. 3:26 It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the Lord. 3:27 It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth. 3:28 Let him sit alone and be silent Since He has laid it on him. 3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, Perhaps there is hope. 3:30 Let him give his cheek to the smiter, Let him be filled with reproach. 3:31 For the Lord will not reject forever, 3:32 For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness. 3:33 For He does not afflict willingly Or grieve the sons of men. 3:34 To crush under His feet All the prisoners of the land, 3:35 To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High, 3:36 To defraud a man in his lawsuit-- Of these things the Lord does not approve. 3:37 Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it? 3:38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth? 3:39 Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins? 3:40 Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the Lord. 3:41 We lift up our heart and hands Toward God in heaven; 3:42 We have transgressed and rebelled, You have not pardoned. 3:43 You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and have not spared. 3:44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through. 3:45 You have made us mere offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples. 3:46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. 3:47 Panic and pitfall have befallen us, Devastation and destruction; 3:48 My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. 3:49 My eyes pour down unceasingly, Without stopping, 3:50 Until the Lord looks down And sees from heaven. 3:51 My eyes bring pain to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city. 3:52 My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird; 3:53 They have silenced me in the pit And have placed a stone on me. 3:54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, "I am cut off!" 3:55 I called on Your name, O Lord, Out of the lowest pit. 3:56 You have heard my voice, "Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help." 3:57 You drew near when I called on You; You said, "Do not fear!" 3:58 O Lord, You have pleaded my soul's cause; You have redeemed my life. 3:59 O Lord, You have seen my oppression; Judge my case. 3:60 You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me. 3:61 You have heard their reproach, O Lord, All their schemes against me. 3:62 The lips of my assailants and their whispering Are against me all day long. 3:63 Look on their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song. 3:64 You will recompense them, O Lord, According to the work of their hands. 3:65 You will give them hardness of heart, Your curse will be on them. 3:66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the heavens of the Lord!