Chapter 3

  I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.  

  Me hath he led, and brought into darkness, and not into light.  

  Surely against me hath he turned again and again his hand all the day.  

  My flesh and my skin hath he wasted away, he hath broken my bones.  

  He hath built against me, and encompassed [me] with gall and toil.  

  He hath made me to dwell in dark places as those that have been long dead.  

  He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.  

  Even when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.  

  He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.  

  He is unto me [as] a bear lying in wait, a lion in secret places.  

  He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he hath made me desolate.  

  He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.  

  He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.  

  I am become a derision to all my people; their song all the day.  

  He hath sated me with bitterness, he hath made me drunk with wormwood.  

  He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.  

  And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I have forgotten prosperity.  

  And I said, My strength is perished, and my hope in Jehovah.  

  Remember thou mine affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.  

  My soul hath [them] constantly in remembrance, and is humbled in me.  

  -- This I recall to heart, therefore have I hope.  

  It is of Jehovah's loving-kindness we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not;  

  they are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.  

  Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.  

  Jehovah is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul [that] seeketh him.  

  It is good that one should both wait, and that in silence, for the salvation of Jehovah.  

  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth:  

  He sitteth solitary and keepeth silence, because he hath laid it upon him;  

  he putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope;  

  he giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him; he is filled full with reproach.  

  For the Lord will not cast off for ever;  

  but if he have caused grief, he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses:  

  for he doth not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.  

  To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,  

  to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,  

  to wrong a man in his cause, -- will not the Lord see it?  

  Who is he that saith, and there cometh to pass, what the Lord hath not commanded?  

  Out of the mouth of the Most High doth not there proceed evil and good?  

  Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?  

  Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Jehovah.  

  Let us lift up our heart with [our] hands unto ùGod in the heavens.  

  We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.  

  Thou hast covered thyself with anger, and pursued us; thou hast slain, thou hast not spared.  

  Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that prayer should not pass through.  

  Thou hast made us the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.  

  All our enemies have opened their mouth against us.  

  Fear and the pit are come upon us, devastation and ruin.  

  Mine eye runneth down with streams of water for the ruin of the daughter of my people.  

  Mine eye poureth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,  

  till Jehovah look down and behold from the heavens.  

  Mine eye affecteth my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.  

  They that are mine enemies without cause have chased me sore like a bird.  

  They have cut off my life in a pit, and cast a stone upon me.  

  Waters streamed over my head; I said, I am cut off.  

  I called upon thy name, Jehovah, out of the lowest pit.  

  Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my sighing, at my cry.  

  Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not.  

  Lord, thou hast pleaded the cause of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.  

  Jehovah, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.  

  Thou hast seen all their vengeance, all their imaginations against me.  

  Thou hast heard their reproach, O Jehovah, all their imaginations against me;  

  the lips of those that rise up against me and their meditation against me all the day.  

  Behold thou their sitting down and their rising up: I am their song.  

  Render unto them a recompence, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands;  

  give them obduracy of heart, thy curse unto them;  

  pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.