1I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; (Ps 2:9; Jer 20:18)2he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; (Isa 5:30)3surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.4He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; (Ps 51:8; Isa 38:13; Jer 50:17)5he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; (De 29:18; Job 19:12; La 3:19)6he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. (Ps 143:3)7He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; (Job 19:8; Ps 88:8)8though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; (Job 19:7; Job 30:20; Ps 22:2)9he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. (La 3:7)10He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; (Ho 13:8)11he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; (Jer 18:15; La 1:13; La 3:10)12he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. (Job 16:12; La 2:4)13He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; (Job 6:4; Ps 38:2)14I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. (Job 30:9; Ps 69:12; Jer 20:7; La 3:63)15He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. (Isa 51:17; Isa 51:21; Jer 9:15)16He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; (Pr 20:17; Jer 6:26)17my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness[1] is;18so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.” (Ps 9:18)19Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! (La 1:9; La 1:11; La 1:20; La 3:5; La 3:15)20My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. (Ps 42:6; Ps 44:25)21But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: (Ps 42:5; Ps 42:11)22The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[2] his mercies never come to an end; (Mal 3:6)23they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Job 7:18; Ps 36:5)24“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” (Ps 16:5; Ps 73:26; La 3:21)25The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. (Ps 130:6; Isa 30:18)26It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. (Ps 130:5; Ps 130:7; Mic 7:7)27It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. (Ec 12:1; Mt 11:29)28Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; (Isa 3:26; La 1:1; La 2:10)29let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; (Job 42:6)30let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. (Isa 50:6; Mt 5:39)31For the Lord will not cast off forever, (Ps 103:9)32but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; (Ps 103:8; Ps 106:45; La 1:5)33for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. (Heb 12:6; Heb 12:10; Heb 12:11)34To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, (Ps 107:10)35to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, (Hab 1:13)36to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. (La 3:35)37Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? (Ps 33:9)38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? (Isa 45:7; Am 3:6)39Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? (Pr 19:3)40Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! (Joe 2:12)41Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: (Ps 25:1; Ps 119:48)42“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven. (Ps 78:17; Da 9:5)43“You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity; (La 2:2; La 2:17; La 2:21)44you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. (La 2:1; La 3:8)45You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples. (1Co 4:13)46“All our enemies open their mouths against us; (La 2:16)47panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction; (Isa 24:17; Isa 51:19; Jer 48:43)48my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. (Jer 13:17; La 1:16)49“My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, (La 3:48)50until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees; (Ps 14:2; Isa 63:15)51my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.52“I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; (Ps 11:1; Ps 35:19; La 4:18)53they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me; (Jer 37:16; Jer 38:6; Jer 38:9; Da 6:17)54water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost.’ (Ps 69:2; Ps 88:5; Eze 37:11)55“I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; (Ps 130:1)56you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’ (Ps 130:2)57You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ (Jos 1:9; Jas 4:8)58“You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. (1Sa 24:15; Ps 119:154)59You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; judge my cause. (Ps 35:22)60You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. (Jer 11:19)61“You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me. (La 3:60; La 5:1)62The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. (Ps 18:39; Ps 18:48)63Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts. (Ps 139:2; La 3:14)64“You will repay them,[3] O Lord, according to the work of their hands. (Ps 28:4; Jer 11:20; 2Ti 4:14)65You will give them[4] dullness of heart; your curse will be[5] on them.66You will pursue them[6] in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O Lord.”[7] (De 25:19; Ps 8:3; Jer 10:11)