| Chapter 3 |
1 | I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
|
2 | He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
|
3 | Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
|
4 | My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.
|
5 | He hath built against me, and compassed me with gall and labor.
|
6 | He hath set me in dark places, as they that are dead of old.
|
7 | He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
|
8 | Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
|
9 | He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
|
10 | He was to me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
|
11 | He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
|
12 | He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
|
13 | He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
|
14 | I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
|
15 | He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
|
16 | He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
|
17 | And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
|
18 | And I said, My strength and my hope hath perished from the LORD:
|
19 | Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
|
20 | My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
|
21 | This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
|
22 | It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
|
23 | They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
|
24 | The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
|
25 | The LORD is good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
|
26 | It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
|
27 | It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth.
|
28 | He sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
|
29 | He putteth his mouth in the dust; if there may be hope.
|
30 | He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.
|
31 | For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
|
32 | But though he causeth grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
|
33 | For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.
|
34 | To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
|
35 | To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,
|
36 | To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.
|
37 | Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
|
38 | Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
|
39 | Why doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
|
40 | Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
|
41 | Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
|
42 | We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
|
43 | Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.
|
44 | Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
|
45 | Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
|
46 | All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
|
47 | Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.
|
48 | My eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
|
49 | My eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
|
50 | Till the LORD shall look down, and behold from heaven.
|
51 | My eye affecteth my heart because of all the daughters of my city.
|
52 | My enemies chased me fiercely, like a bird without cause.
|
53 | They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
|
54 | Waters flowed over my head; then I said, I am cut off.
|
55 | I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.
|
56 | Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thy ear at my breathing, at my cry.
|
57 | Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.
|
58 | O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
|
59 | O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.
|
60 | Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
|
61 | Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;
|
62 | The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
|
63 | Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music.
|
64 | Render to them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
|
65 | Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse to them.
|
66 | Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.
|