1 I am the man who has seen affliction By the rod of His wrath.
2 He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not light.
3 Indeed, He has turned back, He has turned His hand against me all the day.
4 He has worn out my flesh and my skin, He has broken my bones.
5 He has piled up against me, And surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me dwell in dark places Like the dead of old.
7 He has hedged me in and I do not go out, He has made my chain heavy.
8 Also, when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone, He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait, A lion in hiding.
11 He has turned aside my ways And torn me in pieces, He has laid me waste.
12 He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.
13 He made the arrows of His quiver pierce my kidneys.
14 I have been a mockery to all my people, Their mocking song all the day.
15 He has filled me with bitterness, He drenched me with wormwood.
16 And He has broken my teeth with gravel, He has covered me with ashes.
17 And You have removed my being far from peace, I have forgotten goodness.
18 And I said, “My strength and my expectancy Have perished from יהוה.”
19 Remember my affliction and my anguish, The wormwood and the gall.
20 Your being indeed remembers And bows down upon me.
21 This I recall to my mind, therefore I wait:
22 The kindnesses of יהוה! For we have not been consumed, For His compassions have not ended.
23 They are new every morning, Great is Your trustworthiness.
24 “יהוה is my Portion,” says my being, “Therefore I wait for Him!”
25 יהוה is good to those waiting for Him, To the being who seeks Him.
26 It is good – both to wait and to be silent, For the deliverance of יהוה.
27 It is good for a man to bear a yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and be silent, Because He has laid it on him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, There might yet be expectancy.
30 Let him give his cheek To the one who smites him – He is filled with reproach.
31 For יהוה does not cast off forever.
32 For though He afflicted, Yet He shall show compassion According to the greatness of His kindnesses.
33 For He has not afflicted from His heart, Nor does He grieve the children of men.
34 To crush under His feet All the prisoners of the earth,
35 To turn aside the right-ruling of man Before the face of the Most High,
36 Or wrong a man in his cause – This יהוה does not approve.
37 Who was it that spoke, And it came to be! Has יהוה not commanded it?
38 Do not the evils and the good Come out of the mouth of the Most High?
39 What? Should mankind complain, A living man, because of his sins?
40 Let us search and examine our ways, And turn back to יהוה.
41 Let us lift our hearts and hands To Ěl in the heavens and say:
42 We, we have transgressed and rebelled. You, You have not forgiven.
43 You have wrapped Yourself With displeasure and pursued us. You have slain, You have not shown compassion.
44 You have wrapped Yourself With a cloud, so that prayer does not pass through.
45 You make us as scum and refuse In the midst of the peoples.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.
47 Fear and a snare have come upon us, Shame and ruin.
48 Streams of water run down my eye For the ruin of the daughter of my people.
49 My eye flows out and does not cease, Without stopping,
50 Until יהוה looks down and sees from the heavens.
51 My eye pains my being Because of all the daughters of my city.
52 My enemies hunted me down Like a bird, without cause.
53 They have cut off my life in the pit, And they threw stones at me.
54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off!”
55 I called on Your Name, O יהוה, from the lowest pit.
56 You have heard my voice, Do not hide Your ear from my groaning, From my outcry!
57 You drew near on the day I called on You; You said, “Do not fear!”
58 O יהוה, You did plead the case for my being; You have redeemed my life.
59 O יהוה, You have seen my oppression; Judge my case.
60 You have seen all their vengeance, All their plans against me.
61 You have heard their reproach, O יהוה, all their plans against me,
62 The lips of those rising against me, And their scheming against me all the day.
63 Look at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their song.
64 Repay them, O יהוה, According to the work of their hands.
65 Give them a veiled heart, Your curse upon them!
66 Pursue and destroy them in displeasure, From under the heavens of יהוה.