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3:1  I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
3:2  He has led me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.
3:3  Surely He has turned His hand against me Time and time again throughout the day.
3:4  He has aged my flesh and my skin, And broken my bones.
3:5  He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.
3:6  He has set me in dark places Like the dead of long ago.
3:7  He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy.
3:8  Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer.
3:9  He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.
3:10  He has been to me a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in ambush.
3:11  He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate.
3:12  He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.
3:13  He has caused the arrows of His quiver To pierce my loins.
3:14  I have become the ridicule of all my people— Their taunting song all the day.
3:15  He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood.
3:16  He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And covered me with ashes.
3:17  You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.
3:18  And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the Lord.”
3:19  Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.
3:20  My soul still remembers And sinks within me.
3:21  This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.
3:22  Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.
3:23  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
3:24  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I 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 that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the Lord.
3:27  It is good for a man to bear The yoke in his youth.
3:28  Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because God has laid it on him;
3:29  Let him put his mouth in the dust— There may yet be hope.
3:30  Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, And be full of reproach.
3:31  For the Lord will not cast off forever.
3:32  Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies.
3:33  For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men.
3:34  To crush under one’s feet All the prisoners of the earth,
3:35  To turn aside the justice due a man Before the face of the Most High,
3:36  Or subvert a man in his cause— The Lord does not approve.
3:37  Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, When the Lord has not commanded it?
3:38  Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That woe and well-being proceed?
3:39  Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins?
3:40  Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord;
3:41  Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven.
3:42  We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned.
3:43  You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and not pitied.
3:44  You have covered Yourself with a cloud, That prayer should not pass through.
3:45  You have made us an offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.
3:46  All our enemies Have opened their mouths against us.
3:47  Fear and a snare have come upon us, Desolation and destruction.
3:48  My eyes overflow with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
3:49  My eyes flow and do not cease, Without interruption,
3:50  Till the Lord from heaven Looks down and sees.
3:51  My eyes bring suffering to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.
3:52  My enemies without cause Hunted me down like a bird.
3:53  They silenced my life in the pit And threw stones at me.
3:54  The waters flowed over my head; I said, “I am cut off!”
3:55  I called on Your name, O Lord, From the lowest pit.
3:56  You have heard my voice: “Do not hide Your ear From my sighing, from my cry for help.”
3:57  You drew near on the day I called on You, And said, “Do not fear!”
3:58  O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life.
3:59  O Lord, You have seen how I am wronged; Judge my case.
3:60  You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.
3:61  You have heard their reproach, O Lord, All their schemes against me,
3:62  The lips of my enemies And their whispering against me all the day.
3:63  Look at their sitting down and their rising up; I am their taunting song.
3:64  Repay them, O Lord, According to the work of their hands.
3:65  Give them a veiled heart; Your curse be upon them!
3:66  In Your anger, Pursue and destroy them From under the heavens of the Lord.