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3:1  I am the man who has experienced affliction under the rod of his fury.
3:2  He drove me off and brought me into darkness instead of light.
3:3  See how he turns against me. He turns his hand against me all day long.
3:4  He wore out my flesh and my skin. He shattered my bones.
3:5  He built siege works against me. He surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
3:6  He made me dwell in dark places, like people who died long ago.
3:7  He walled me in, so I cannot leave. He made my chains heavy.
3:8  Even when I call and cry out, he shuts out my prayer.
3:9  He has blocked my way with a stone wall. He has made my paths crooked.
3:10  He is about to ambush me like a bear, like a lion lying in wait.
3:11  He diverted me off my path and tore me to pieces. He made me desolate.
3:12  He bent his bow and set me up as a target for the arrow.
3:13  He shot the arrows from his quiver into my heart.
3:14  I was a laughingstock to all my people, the target of their song all day long.
3:15  He has made me eat bitter food and drink my fill of wormwood.
3:16  He broke my teeth with gravel. He pushed me down into the ashes.
3:17  You deprived my soul of peace. I have forgotten what well-being is.
3:18  I said, “My endurance has vanished, along with my hope from the Lord.”
3:19  Remember my affliction and my homeless wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.
3:20  My soul always remembers, and it has sunk within me.
3:21  Nevertheless, I keep this in my heart. This is the reason I have hope:
3:22  By the mercies of the Lord we are not consumed, for his compassions do not fail.
3:23  They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
3:24  My soul says, “The Lord is my portion. Therefore, I will hope in him.”
3:25  The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
3:26  It is good to hope quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
3:27  It is good for a man that he bears a yoke early in his life.
3:28  Let him sit alone and be silent, because the Lord has laid this upon him.
3:29  Let him stick his face in the dust. Perhaps there still is hope.
3:30  Let him turn his cheek toward the one who strikes him. Let him be filled with disgrace.
3:31  For the Lord will not push us away forever.
3:32  Even though he brings grief, he will show compassion on the basis of his great mercy.
3:33  Certainly it is not what his heart desires when he causes affliction, when he brings grief to the children of men.
3:34  To crush all the land’s prisoners under his feet,
3:35  to deny a man’s right before the face of the Most High,
3:36  to undermine a man in his legal dispute— the Lord does not look with favor on these things.
3:37  Who can speak something and have it happen, unless the Lord commands it?
3:38  Don’t the bad things and the good both come from the mouth of the Most High?
3:39  How can any living man complain? How can someone complain about the consequences of his sins?
3:40  Let us explore and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord.
3:41  Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven.
3:42  We were disobedient and rebelled, so you did not forgive.
3:43  You covered yourself with anger and pursued us. You killed and did not spare.
3:44  You covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer passes through.
3:45  You make us like scraps and garbage among the peoples.
3:46  All our enemies opened their mouth against us.
3:47  Panic and the pit were ours, devastation and destruction.
3:48  Streams of water run down from my eyes, because of the breaking of the daughter of my people.
3:49  My eye pours without stopping. It will not cease,
3:50  until the Lord looks down so that he sees from heaven.
3:51  What I see makes my soul ache for all the daughters of my city.
3:52  For no reason, my enemies hunted me like a bird.
3:53  They ended my life in the pit and threw stones at me.
3:54  Water flowed above my head, and I said, “I am cut off!”
3:55  I called on your name, Lord, from the deepest pit.
3:56  You heard my voice: “Do not hide your ear from my cry for relief!”
3:57  The day I called to you, you came near and said, “Do not fear.”
3:58  Lord, you pleaded my soul’s case. You redeemed my life.
3:59  Lord, you saw how I was wronged. Judge my case.
3:60  You saw all their vengeance, all their plans against me.
3:61  You heard their scorn, Lord, all their plans against me.
3:62  You heard the lips of those who rise up against me and their plots against me all day long.
3:63  Watch them when they sit down and when they get up. I am the target of their mocking song.
3:64  You will pay them back, Lord, according to what their hands have done.
3:65  You will give them a stubborn heart. Your curse is on them.
3:66  You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.