1 I am the strong man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
2 He has driven me and made me walk in darkness and not light.
3 Surely, He has turned His hand against me again and again all day long.
4 He made my flesh and my skin waste away, broken my bones.
5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He made me dwell in dark places like those long dead.
7 He has walled me in so I cannot get out. He made my chain heavy.
8 Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.
9 He walled in my ways with hewn stone. He twisted my paths.
10 He is a lurking bear to me, a lion in hiding.
11 He turned aside my paths and tore me to pieces. He has made me desolate.
12 He bent His bow and made me the target for His arrow.
13 He shot into my kidneys arrows from His quiver.
14 I have become a laughing stock to all my people, their song all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness and made me drink wormwood.
16 He broke my teeth with gravel. He made me wallow in ashes.
17 My soul has been deprived of shalom, I have forgotten goodness.
18 So I said, “My endurance has perished, and my hope from Adonai.”
19 Remember my affliction my homelessness, bitterness and gall.
20 Whenever I remember, my soul is downcast within me.
21 This I recall to my heart— therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the mercies of Adonai we will not be consumed, for His compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning! Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “Adonai is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
25 Adonai is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him.
26 It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of Adonai.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and be silent, since He has laid it upon him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope.
30 Let him offer his cheek to the one who strikes him. Let him have his fill of disgrace.
31 For the Lord will not reject forever.
32 For though He has caused grief, yet He will have compassion according to His abundant mercies.
33 For He does not afflict from His heart or grieve the sons of men.
34 To crush under His foot all the prisoners of the land,
35 to deprive a person of justice before the face of Elyon,
36 to defraud a person in his lawsuit— would the Lord not see?
37 Who speaks and it comes to pass unless the Lord has decreed it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of Elyon that both calamities and good things proceed?
39 Why should any living person complain when punished for his sins?
40 Let us examine and test our ways, and let us return to Adonai.
41 Let us lift up our heart and hands to God in heaven.
42 We have transgressed and rebelled— You have not pardoned.
43 You covered Yourself with anger and pursued us. You have slain without pity.
44 You shrouded Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.
45 You have made us scum and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
46 All our enemies opened their mouth wide against us.
47 Panic and pitfall have befallen us, devastation and destruction.
48 Streams of tears run down my eyes because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 My eye flows unceasingly, without stopping,
50 until Adonai looks down from heaven and sees.
51 My eye torments my soul because of all the daughters of my city.
52 For no reason, my enemies hunted me down like a bird.
53 They cut off my life in the Pit, and cast stones upon me.
54 Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I have been cut off!”
55 I called on Your Name, Adonai, from the depths of the Pit.
56 You heard my voice, “Do not close Your ears to my cry for relief.”
57 You drew near on the day I called to You. You said, “Do not fear!”
58 Lord, You pled my soul’s case, You redeemed my life.
59 Adonai, You saw the wrong done to me; judge my cause!
60 You have seen all their vengefulness, all their schemes against me.
61 You heard their taunt, Adonai, all their plots against me.
62 The lips of my assailants and their whispering are against me all day long.
63 Look at them, sitting or standing, they mock me in their song.
64 Pay them back what they deserve, Adonai, according to the work of their hands.
65 Give them a distraught heart. May Your curse be on them.
66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of Adonai.