Read the Bible

¹ I am the man who has experienced affliction
from the rod of his wrath.
² He drove me into captivity and made me walk
in darkness and not light.
³ He repeatedly attacks me,
he turns his hand against me all day long.

⁴ He has made my mortal skin waste away;
he has broken my bones.
⁵ He has besieged and surrounded me
with bitter hardship.
⁶ He has made me reside in deepest darkness
like those who died long ago.

⁷ He has walled me in so that I cannot get out;
he has weighted me down with heavy prison chains.
⁸ Also, when I cry out desperately for help,
he has shut out my prayer.
⁹ He has blocked every road I take with a wall of hewn stones;
he has made every path impassable.

¹⁰ To me he is like a bear lying in ambush,
like a hidden lion stalking its prey.
¹¹ He has obstructed my paths and torn me to pieces;
he has made me desolate.
¹² He drew his bow and made me
the target for his arrow.

¹³ He shot his arrows
into my heart.
¹⁴ I have become the laughingstock of all people,
their mocking song all day long.
¹⁵ He has given me my fill of bitter herbs
and made me drunk with bitterness.

¹⁶ He ground my teeth in gravel;
he trampled me in the dust.
¹⁷ I am deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is.
¹⁸ So I said, "My endurance has expired;
I have lost all hope of deliverance from the Lord."

¹⁹ Remember my impoverished and homeless condition,
which is a bitter poison.
²⁰ I continually think about this,
and I am depressed.
²¹ But this I call to mind;
therefore I have hope:

²² The Lord's loyal kindness never ceases;
his compassions never end.
²³ They are fresh every morning;
your faithfulness is abundant!
²⁴ "My portion is the Lord," I have said to myself,
so I will put my hope in him.

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who trust in him,
to the one who seeks him.
²⁶ It is good to wait patiently
for deliverance from the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for a man
to bear the yoke while he is young.

²⁸ Let a person sit alone in silence,
when the Lord is disciplining him.
²⁹ Let him bury his face in the dust;
perhaps there is hope.
³⁰ Let him offer his cheek to the one who hits him;
let him have his fill of insults.

³¹ For the Lord will not
reject us forever.
³² Though he causes us grief, he then has compassion on us
according to the abundance of his loyal kindness.
³³ For he is not predisposed to afflict
or to grieve people.

³⁴ To crush underfoot
all the earth's prisoners,
³⁵ to deprive a person of his rights
in the presence of the Most High,
³⁶ to defraud a person in a lawsuit—
the Lord does not approve of such things!

³⁷ Whose command was ever fulfilled
unless the Lord decreed it?
³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that everything comes—
both calamity and blessing?
³⁹ Why should any living person complain
when punished for his sins?

⁴⁰ Let us carefully examine our ways,
and let us return to the Lord.
⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven:
⁴² "We have blatantly rebelled;
you have not forgiven."

⁴³ You shrouded yourself with anger and then pursued us;
you killed without mercy.
⁴⁴ You shrouded yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can get through.
⁴⁵ You make us like filthy scum
in the estimation of the nations.

⁴⁶ All our enemies have gloated over us;
⁴⁷ Panic and pitfall have come upon us,
devastation and destruction.
⁴⁸ Streams of tears flow from my eyes
because my people are destroyed.

⁴⁹ Tears flow from my eyes and will not stop;
there will be no break
⁵⁰ until the Lord looks down from heaven
and sees what has happened.
⁵¹ What my eyes see grieves me—
all the suffering of the daughters in my city.

⁵² For no good reason my enemies
hunted me down like a bird.
⁵³ They shut me up in a pit
and threw stones at me.
⁵⁴ The waters closed over my head;
I thought I was about to die.

⁵⁵ I have called on your name, O Lord,
from the deepest pit.
⁵⁶ You heard my plea:
"Do not close your ears to my cry for relief!"
⁵⁷ You came near on the day I called to you;
you said, "Do not fear!"

⁵⁸ O Lord, you championed my cause,
you redeemed my life.
⁵⁹ You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;
pronounce judgment on my behalf!
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 My assailants revile and conspire
against me all day long.
⁶³ Watch them from morning to evening;
I am the object of their mocking songs.

⁶⁴ Pay them back what they deserve, O Lord,
according to what they have done.
⁶⁵ Give them a distraught heart;
may your curse be on them!
⁶⁶ Pursue them in anger and eradicate them
from under the Lord's heaven.