² He drove me off and brought me into darkness instead of light.
³ See how he turns against me. He turns his hand against me all day long.
⁴ He wore out my flesh and my skin. He shattered my bones.
⁵ He built siege works against me. He surrounded me with bitterness
    and hardship.
⁶ He made me dwell in dark places, like people who died long ago.
⁷ He walled me in, so I cannot leave. He made my chains heavy.
⁸ Even when I call and cry out, he shuts out my prayer.
⁹ He has blocked my way with a stone wall. He has made my paths crooked.
¹⁰ He is about to ambush me like a bear, like a lion lying in wait.
¹¹ He diverted me off my path and tore me to pieces. He made
    me desolate.
¹² He bent his bow and set me up as a target for the arrow.
¹³ He shot the arrows from his quiver into my heart. ^[2]
14 I was a laughingstock to all my people, the target of their song
    all day long.
¹⁵ He has made me eat bitter food and drink my fill of wormwood.
¹⁶ He broke my teeth with gravel. He pushed me down into ^[3] the ashes.
¹⁷ You deprived my soul of peace. I have forgotten what well-being ^[4] is.
¹⁸ I said, “My endurance has vanished, along with my hope from
    the Lord.”
¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my homeless wandering,
    the wormwood and bitterness.
²⁰ My soul always remembers, and it has sunk within me.
²¹ Nevertheless, I keep this in my heart. This is the reason I have hope:
²² By the mercies of the Lord we are not consumed, for his compassions do not fail.
²³ They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ My soul says, “The Lord is my portion. Therefore, I will hope in him.”
²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
²⁶ It is good to hope quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for a man that he bears a yoke early in his life.
²⁸ Let him sit alone and be silent, because the Lord has laid this upon him.
²⁹ Let him stick his face in the dust. Perhaps there still is hope.
³⁰ Let him turn his cheek toward the one who strikes him. Let him be filled with disgrace.
³¹ For the Lord will not push us away forever.
³² Even though he brings grief, he will show compassion on the basis of his great mercy.
³³ Certainly it is not what his heart desires when he causes affliction,
    when he brings grief to the children of men.
³⁴ To crush all the land’s prisoners under his feet,
³⁵ to deny a man’s right before the face of the Most High,
³⁶ to undermine a man in his legal dispute—
    the Lord does not look with favor on these things. ^[5]
37 Who can speak something and have it happen, unless the Lord commands it?
³⁸ Don’t the bad things and the good both come from the mouth of the Most High?
³⁹ How can any living man complain?
    How can someone complain about the consequences of his sins?
⁴⁰ Let us explore and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord.
⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven.
⁴² We were disobedient and rebelled, so you did not forgive.
⁴³ You covered yourself with anger and pursued us. You killed and did not spare.
⁴⁴ You covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer passes through.
⁴⁵ You make us like scraps and garbage among the peoples.
⁴⁶ All our enemies opened their mouth against us.
⁴⁷ Panic and the pit were ours, devastation and destruction.
⁴⁸ Streams of water run down from my eyes,
    because of the breaking of the daughter of my people.
⁴⁹ My eye pours without stopping. It will not cease,
⁵⁰ until the Lord looks down so that he sees from heaven.
⁵¹ What I see makes my soul ache for all the daughters of my city.
⁵² For no reason, my enemies hunted me like a bird.
⁵³ They ended my life in the pit and threw stones at me.
⁵⁴ Water flowed above my head, and I said, “I am cut off!”
⁵⁵ I called on your name, Lord, from the deepest pit.
⁵⁶ You heard my voice: “Do not hide your ear from my cry for relief!”
⁵⁷ The day I called to you, you came near and said, “Do not fear.”
⁵⁸ Lord, you pleaded my soul’s case. You redeemed my life.
⁵⁹ Lord, you saw how I was wronged. Judge my case.
⁶⁰ You saw all their vengeance, all their plans against me.
⁶¹ You heard their scorn, Lord, all their plans against me.
⁶² You heard the lips of those who rise up against me
    and their plots against me all day long.
⁶³ Watch them when they sit down and when they get up.
    I am the target of their mocking song.
⁶⁴ You will pay them back, Lord, according to what their hands have done.
⁶⁵ You will give them a stubborn ^[6] heart. Your curse is on them.
⁶⁶ You will pursue them in anger
    and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.