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¹ I am the [noble] man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.² He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.³ Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.⁴ My flesh and my skin he has made old; he has broken my bones.⁵ He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.⁶ He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.⁷ He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy.⁸ Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.⁹ He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.¹⁰ He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.¹¹ He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.¹² He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.¹³ He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins.¹⁴ I have become a derision for my whole nation, and their song all the day.¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.¹⁶ He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.¹⁷ And you have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.¹⁸ And I said, My strength has perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.¹⁹ Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall.²⁰ My soul has them still in remembrance, and is bowed down inside me.

²¹ This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope.²² [It is of] Yahweh's loving-kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions do not fail.²³ They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.²⁴ Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in him.²⁵ Yahweh is good to those that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.²⁶ It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.²⁷ It is good for a [noble] man that he bear the yoke in his youth.²⁸ Let him sit alone and keep silent, because he has laid it on him.²⁹ Let him put his mouth in the dust, if perhaps there may be hope.³⁰ Let him give his cheek to him that smites him; let him be filled full with reproach.³¹ For the Lord will not cast off forever.³² For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses.³³ For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the sons of a man.³⁴ To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,³⁵ To turn aside the right of a [noble] man before the face of the Most High,³⁶ To subvert man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.

³⁷ Who is he that says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord does not command it?³⁸ Out of the mouth of the Most High does there not come evil and good?³⁹ Why does man complain, a living [noble] man for the punishment of his sins?⁴⁰ Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.⁴¹ Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.

⁴² We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.⁴³ You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have slain, you have not pitied.⁴⁴ You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.⁴⁵ You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.⁴⁶ All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.⁴⁷ Fear and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.⁴⁸ My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.⁴⁹ My eye pours down, and does not cease, without any intermission,⁵⁰ Until Yahweh looks down, and beholds from heaven.⁵¹ My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.⁵² They have chased me intensely like a bird, those that are my enemies without cause.⁵³ They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.⁵⁴ Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.

⁵⁵ I called on your name, O Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.⁵⁶ You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.⁵⁷ You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid.⁵⁸ O Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.⁵⁹ O Yahweh, you have seen my wrong; judge my cause.⁶⁰ You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.⁶¹ You have heard their reproach, O Yahweh, and all their devices against me,⁶² The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.⁶³ Look at their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.⁶⁴ You will render to them a recompense, O Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.⁶⁵ You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.⁶⁶ You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.