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3:1  I am the man who has seen trouble. God punished me because he was angry with me.
3:2  He has led me into the dark. There is no light, so I cannot see the right way.
3:3  He is completely against me. He causes me trouble all the time.
3:4  God has caused my skin and my whole body to become old. He has broken my bones.
3:5  He has fought against me from every side. He caused much trouble for me, so that I am very sad.
3:6  He has brought me to this dark place. So I am like a person who has been dead for a long time.
3:7  It is as if God has built high walls round me, and I cannot go out. My troubles are very bad. They hold me down like heavy chains.
3:8  I shout and I pray for help, but God does not listen.
3:9  On every road that I go along, he has put big rocks in my way. I cannot go past them.
3:10  God is like a strong wild animal. He hides and he waits for me by the path.
3:11  He is like an animal that catches me and pulls me off the path. He tears me in pieces and then he leaves me without any help.
3:12  God is like a soldier with a bow and arrows. He used his bow to shoot at me.
3:13  It was as if he shot me in the heart with his arrows.
3:14  All the people see me and laugh. They even sing silly songs about me all the time.
3:15  God has caused my life to become a thing of pain. It is as if he filled a cup with a very bitter drink for me.
3:16  It is as if he caused me to eat small stones, so that the stones broke my teeth. Then he put me on the ground, and he pushed me down in the dirt.
3:17  He has taken peace away from my mind. I cannot remember the happy days that I had before.
3:18  I tell myself, ‘Everything good has finished for me! The things that I hoped for from the Lord have not come!’
3:19  Lord, please remember all my troubles, because I am sad. Remember that I am very lonely. My troubles are like poison for me.
3:20  I think about all those things, and I feel small and alone.
3:21  But then I choose to remember God, and this is my hope:
3:22  The Lord's faithful love never comes to an end. He never stops being kind to us.
3:23  Every day, we can trust him to be kind again. We know that he will do what he has promised to do.
3:24  ‘He is my Lord,’ I say to myself. ‘He is the reason why I can hope for good things.’
3:25  The Lord does good things for people who wait for him. He is kind to everyone who looks for him.
3:26  It is good when people continue to hope. It is good when they quietly wait for the Lord, because he will save them.
3:27  It is also good for people to obey God when they are young. They should work well for him.
3:28  Also, when the Lord causes them to be in trouble, they should sit alone quietly.
3:29  They should be humble in front of God. Then hope may come again.
3:30  If somebody hits them or insults them, they should accept it.
3:31  The Lord does not turn against people for ever.
3:32  He does cause people to feel sad sometimes, but he is sorry for us. He is also very kind to us, because he loves us very much.
3:33  He does not enjoy seeing people who are in pain. He does not enjoy causing trouble for them.
3:34  Bad people may be cruel to those who are in prison.
3:35  They may turn against the Most High God and cheat people.
3:36  They may tell lies in court. The Lord is not happy when he sees any of those bad things.
3:37  The Lord causes things to happen. Nobody can cause things to happen without him.
3:38  The Most High God causes all things to happen. He causes good things and bad things to happen when he speaks.
3:39  He only punishes us when we do wrong things. We are still alive, so we should not be angry with God.
3:40  Instead, we should think a lot about what we do, and we should turn back to the Lord again.
3:41  We should lift up our hands and pray to God in heaven. We should be honest with God and say to him,
3:42  ‘We have done wrong things, and we have turned against you. You have not forgiven us.
3:43  You have hidden yourself from us because you are angry. You have followed us so that you could kill us. You were not sorry about it.
3:44  You have hidden from us in a cloud. So you do not listen to us when we talk to you.
3:45  You let people from other countries think bad things about us. They think that we have no value. We are like things that nobody can use any longer.
3:46  All our enemies have insulted us.
3:47  We have become afraid of them. They have caught us and they have destroyed us and our things.’
3:48  I weep, and my eyes are red with all my tears. It is because the enemy has killed my people.
3:49  Tears come like a river from my eyes and they will not stop,
3:50  until the Lord looks down on us from heaven. He will see us and he will help us.
3:51  I see what has happened to all the people in my city. And so I am very sad.
3:52  My enemies had no reason to follow me. But they caught me as they would catch a bird.
3:53  They put me alive into the well, and they threw stones down on me.
3:54  The water covered my head. Then I said, ‘I will soon die.’
3:55  I shouted your name, Lord, when I was in the well.
3:56  ‘Please listen to me, Lord,’ I shouted. ‘Help me! Save me!’ I shouted, and you heard me.
3:57  You came near to me when I prayed to you. ‘Do not be afraid,’ you said.
3:58  Lord, you have given me help. You have paid the price to keep me alive.
3:59  You saw the bad things that they did to me. So please agree with me that they were not fair!
3:60  You know all the bad things that they did to me. And you know about all the bad things that they want to do to me.
3:61  You have heard their cruel words against me, Lord. Yes, you know about all the bad things that they want to do to me.
3:62  These people have been cruel to me. They attack me with cruel words every hour of the day.
3:63  Look at them as they sing cruel things about me. They sing when they are sitting, and they sing when they are standing.
3:64  Punish them for what they have done, Lord.
3:65  Cause them to think that they cannot hope for anything good. Cause bad things to happen to them.
3:66  Run after them angrily. Kill them all because you are angry with them. Let nobody on earth remember them any longer.