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; he has 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 made my chains heavy; 3:8 though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; 3:9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. 3:10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; 3:11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; 3:12 he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. 3:13 He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; 3:14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts 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, "My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD." 3:19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! 3:20 My soul continually remembers 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 your 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 who 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 it is laid 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 one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. 3:31 For the Lord will not cast off forever, 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 children of men. 3:34 To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, 3:35 to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, 3:36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. 3:37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it 3:38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad 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 you have not forgiven. 3:43 "You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity; 3:44 you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. 3:45 You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples. 3:46 "All our enemies open their mouths 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 daughters 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 your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; 3:56 you heard my plea, 'Do not close your ear to my cry for help!' 3:57 You came near when I called on you; you said, 'Do not fear!' 3:58 "You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. 3:59 You have seen the wrong done to me, O LORD; judge my cause. 3:60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. 3:61 "You have heard their taunts, O LORD, all their plots 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 object of their taunts. 3:64 "You will repay them, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. 3:65 You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them. 3:66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O LORD."