• The Prophet’s Anguish and Hope

  • 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 in light.
  • 3 Surely He has turned His hand against me Time and time again throughout the day.
  • 4 He has aged my flesh and my skin, And broken my bones.
  • 5 He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.
  • 6 He has set me in dark places Like the dead of long ago.
  • 7 He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy.
  • 8 Even 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 has been to me a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in ambush.
  • 11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate.
  • 12 He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.
  • 13 He has caused the arrows of His quiver To pierce my loins.
  • 14 I have become the ridicule of all my people— Their taunting song all the day.
  • 15 He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood.
  • 16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And covered me with ashes.
  • 17 You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.
  • 18 And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the Lord.”
  • 19 Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.
  • 20 My soul still remembers And sinks within me.
  • 21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.
  • 22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.
  • 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
  • 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”
  • 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.
  • 26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the Lord.
  • 27 It is good for a man to bear The yoke in his youth.
  • 28 Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because God has laid it on him;
  • 29 Let him put his mouth in the dust— There may yet be hope.
  • 30 Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, And be full of reproach.
  • 31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.
  • 32 Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies.
  • 33 For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men.
  • 34 To crush under one’s feet All the prisoners of the earth,
  • 35 To turn aside the justice due a man Before the face of the Most High,
  • 36 Or subvert a man in his cause— The Lord does not approve.
  • 37 Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, When the Lord has not commanded it?
  • 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That woe and well-being proceed?
  • 39 Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins?
  • 40 Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord;
  • 41 Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven.
  • 42 We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned.
  • 43 You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and not pitied.
  • 44 You have covered Yourself with a cloud, That prayer should not pass through.
  • 45 You have made us an offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.
  • 46 All our enemies Have opened their mouths against us.
  • 47 Fear and a snare have come upon us, Desolation and destruction.
  • 48 My eyes overflow with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
  • 49 My eyes flow and do not cease, Without interruption,
  • 50 Till the Lord from heaven Looks down and sees.
  • 51 My eyes bring suffering to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.
  • 52 My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird.
  • 53 They silenced my life in the pit And threw stones at me.
  • 54 The waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off!”
  • 55 I called on Your name, O Lord, From the lowest pit.
  • 56 You have heard my voice: “Do not hide Your ear From my sighing, from my cry for help.”
  • 57 You drew near on the day I called on You, And said, “Do not fear!”
  • 58 O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life.
  • 59 O Lord, You have seen how I am wronged; Judge my case.
  • 60 You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.
  • 61 You have heard their reproach, O Lord, All their schemes against me,
  • 62 The lips of my enemies And their whispering against me all the day.
  • 63 Look at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their taunting song.
  • 64 Repay them, O Lord, According to the work of their hands.
  • 65 Give them a veiled heart; Your curse be upon them!
  • 66 In Your anger, Pursue and destroy them From under the heavens of the Lord.