⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
    he has broken my bones;
⁵ he has besieged and enveloped me
    with bitterness and tribulation;
⁶ he has made me dwell in darkness
    like the dead of long ago.

⁷ He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
    he has made my chains heavy;
⁸ though I call and cry for help,
    he shuts out my prayer;
⁹ he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
    he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰ He is a bear lying in wait for me,
    a lion in hiding;
¹¹ he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
    he has made me desolate;
¹² he bent his bow and set me
    as a target for his arrow.

¹³ He drove into my kidneys
    the arrows of his quiver;
¹⁴ I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
    the object of their taunts all day long.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness;
    he has sated me with wormwood.

¹⁶ He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
    and made me cower in ashes;
¹⁷ my soul is bereft of peace;
    I have forgotten what happiness^[a] is;
¹⁸ so I say, “My endurance has perished;
    so has my hope from the Lord.”

¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
    the wormwood and the gall!
²⁰ My soul continually remembers it
    and is bowed down within me.
²¹ But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;^[b]
    his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “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 that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for a man that he bear
    the yoke in his youth.

²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence
    when it is laid 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,
    and let him be filled with insults.

³¹ For the Lord will not
    cast off forever,
³² but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
³³ for he does not afflict from his heart
    or grieve the children of men.

³⁴ To crush underfoot
    all the prisoners of the earth,
³⁵ to deny a man justice
    in the presence of the Most High,
³⁶ to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
    the Lord does not approve.

³⁷ Who has spoken and it came to pass,
    unless the Lord has commanded it?
³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
    that good and bad come?
³⁹ Why should a living man complain,
    a man, about the punishment of his sins?

⁴⁰ Let us test and examine our ways,
    and return to the Lord!
⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and hands
    to God in heaven:
⁴² “We have transgressed and rebelled,
    and you have not forgiven.

⁴³ “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
    killing without pity;
⁴⁴ you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
    so that no prayer can pass through.
⁴⁵ You have made us scum and garbage
    among the peoples.

⁴⁶ “All our enemies
    open their mouths against us;
⁴⁷ panic and pitfall have come upon us,
    devastation and destruction;
⁴⁸ my eyes flow with rivers of tears
    because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹ “My eyes will flow without ceasing,
    without respite,
⁵⁰ until the Lord from heaven
    looks down and sees;
⁵¹ my 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;
⁵³ they flung me alive into the pit
    and cast stones on me;
⁵⁴ water closed over my head;
    I said, ‘I am lost.’

⁵⁵ “I called on your name, O Lord,
    from the depths of the pit;
⁵⁶ you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
    your ear to my cry for help!’
⁵⁷ You came near when I called on you;
    you said, ‘Do not fear!’

⁵⁸ “You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
    you have redeemed my life.
⁵⁹ You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;
    judge my cause.
⁶⁰ You have seen all their vengeance,
    all their plots against me.

⁶¹ “You have heard their taunts, O Lord,
    all their plots against me.
⁶² The lips and thoughts of my assailants
    are against me all the day long.
⁶³ Behold their sitting and their rising;
    I am the object of their taunts.

⁶⁴ “You will repay them,^[c] O Lord,
    according to the work of their hands.
⁶⁵ You will give them^[d] dullness of heart;
    your curse will be^[e] on them.
⁶⁶ You will pursue them^[f] in anger and destroy them
    from under your heavens, O Lord.”^[g]