¹I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his fury.

²He has driven me and made me walk in darkness and not in light.

³Surely against me he turns back, he turns his hand all day long.

⁴He has worn out my flesh and my skin; he has broken my bones.

⁵He has built up against me and surrounded me with poison and hardship.

⁶He has made me dwell in dark places, like those who are dead forever.

⁷He has walled up around me, so that I cannot go out; he has made heavy my bronze fetters.

⁸Even when I cry out and cry aloud, he stops up my prayer.

⁹He has walled up my ways with hewn stone; he has twisted my paths.

¹⁰He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding places.

¹¹He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; he has made me desolate.

¹²He has bent his bow and set me up as a target for the arrow.

¹³He has brought into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver.

¹⁴I have become a laughingstock to all my people, their song all day long.

¹⁵He has sated me with bitter herbs; he has drenched me with wormwood.

¹⁶He has crushed my teeth on gravel; he has pressed me down in the ashes.

¹⁷You have cast away my being from wholeness; I have forgotten good.

¹⁸And I said, My endurance has perished, and my hope from Yahweh.

¹⁹Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the wormwood and the poison.

²⁰My being surely remembers and sinks down within me.

²¹This I bring back to my heart; therefore I will wait.

²²The loyal love of Yahweh is why we have not perished, for his compassions have not run out.

²³New every morning; great is your faithfulness.

²⁴Yahweh is my portion, says my being; therefore I will wait for him.

²⁵Good is Yahweh to those who wait for him, to the being who seeks him.

²⁶Good it is to wait, and quietly, for the deliverance of Yahweh.

²⁷Good for a man that he bears the yoke in his youth.

²⁸Let him sit alone and be silent, for he has borne it upon himself.

²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust; perhaps there is hope.

³⁰Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him; let him be sated with reproach.

³¹For the Lord will not reject forever.

³²For though he causes grief, he has compassion on them according to the greatness of his loyal love.

³³For he does not afflict from his heart, nor grieve the children of man.

³⁴To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land,

³⁵to bend the justice of a man before the face of the Most High,

³⁶to pervert a person in his dispute, does the Lord not see?

³⁷Who is this one who has spoken and it came to pass, if the Lord has not commanded it?

³⁸Do not the evils and the good go forth from the mouth of the Most High?

³⁹Why should a living person complain, a man over his sins?

⁴⁰Let us search our ways and explore them, and let us return to Yahweh.

⁴¹Let us lift up our heart with our palms to God in the heavens.

⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled; you have not forgiven.

⁴³You covered yourself in anger and pursued us; you killed, you did not spare.

⁴⁴You covered yourself with a cloud, so that prayer cannot pass through.

⁴⁵You put us as offscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.

⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

⁴⁷Dread and the pit have come to us, devastation and crushing.

⁴⁸Streams of water run down my eye over the crushing of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹My eye has poured itself out and will not cease, without stopping.

⁵⁰Until Yahweh looks down and sees from the heavens.

⁵¹My eye deals severely with my being, more than all the daughters of my city.

⁵²My enemies hunted me relentlessly like a bird without cause.

⁵³They put an end to my life in the pit, and threw a stone on me.

⁵⁴Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.

⁵⁵I called on your name, Yahweh, from the lowest pit.

⁵⁶You heard my voice; do not hide your ear from my relief, from my cry for help.

⁵⁷You drew near on the day I called on you; you said, Do not fear.

⁵⁸You contended, O Lord, in the disputes of my being; you redeemed my life.

⁵⁹You saw, Yahweh, my subversion; judge for my justice.

⁶⁰You saw all their vengeance, all their plans against me.

⁶¹You heard their reproach, Yahweh, all their plans against me.

⁶²The lips of those who rise against me, and their musing against me all day.

⁶³Look at their sitting and their rising up; I am their mocking song.

⁶⁴You will return to them recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.

⁶⁵You will give them a covering of the heart, your curse upon them.

⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the skies of Yahweh.