CHAPTER 3

1 I am a man who hath seen affliction Through the rod of his indignation'

2 Me hath he led and made to go Into darkness, and not into light.

3 Surely against me is he turned, He turns his hand daily.

4 To grow old hath he made my flesh and my skin, He hath broken my bones.

5 He hath builded against me, And surrounded me with gall and trouble.

6 In darkness hath he made me to lie As the dead for ever.

7 He hath shut me up, that I cannot go forth He hath made heavy my fetter.

8 Even when I cried, and cried aloud, he shut out my prayer.

9 He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stones, My paths hath he perverted.

10 A bear lying in wait hath he been to me, A lion in his den.

11 My ways hath he perverted, and lie hath torn me, He hath made me a waste.

12 He hath bent his bow, and made me As a mark for the arrow.

13 He hath made to enter into my reins The sons of his quiver.

14 I became a derision to all my people, Their song all the day.

15 He hath satiated me with bitterness, He hath filled me with gall.

16 He hath broken with pebbles my teeth, He hath covered me with dust,

17 And far removed from peace is my soul; I have forgotten good.

18 And I said, "Perished hath my strength And my hope from Jehovah;"

19 When I remember my affliction and my trouble, The poison and the gall:

20 Remembering remember does my soul, And it is humbled within me

21 This will I recall to my mind, Therefore will I hope.

22 The mercies of Jehovah! surely they are not consumed; Surely failed not have his compassion's;

23 Renewed are they in the morning; Great is thy faithfulness.

24 My portion is Jehovah, said my soul, Therefore will I hope in him.

25 Good is Jehovah to him who waits for him, To the soul that seeks him;

26 Good it is to hope and to be silent, As to the salvation of Jehovah;

27 Good it is for a man To bear the yoke in his youth:

28 He will sit apart, and be silent, For he will raise it on himself;

29 He will put in the dust his mouth, If so be that there is hope;

30 He will give to the smiter his cheek, He will be filled with reproaches.

31 For not cast away for ever Will the Lord;

32 For though he causes grief, he will yet show compassion, According to the multitude of his mercies;

33 :For he does not from his heart afflict, Nor cause grief to the children of men.

34 When one tears under his feet All the bound of the earth, --

35 When he perverts man's judgment Before the face of the Most High, --

36 When he turns a man aside in his causes -- The Lord does not regard.

37 Who is this that says, "It was, And God has not commanded it"

38 From the mouth of the Most High Can not good and evil proceed?

39 Why should he weary himself, a living man, And a man in his sins?

40 Let us examine our ways, and search, And turn to Jehovah;

41 Let us lift up our hearts with our hands To God in the heavens.

42 We have sinned, and have been rebellious, Thou hast not spared;

43 Thou hast covered us over in wrath, and pursued us, Thou hast slain and not spared.

44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, So that prayer cannot pass through.

45 An offscouring and a refuse hast thou made us In the midst of the nations;

46 Opened at us their mouth Have all our enemies;

47 Fear and the pit have come to us, Desolation and a breach.

48 Rivers of waters mine eye brings down, For the breach of the daughter of my people.

49 Mine eye flows down and rests not; There will be no intermissions,

50 Until Jehovah looks down, And beholds from heaven.

51 Mine eye grieves my soul, Because of all the daughters of my city.

52 Hunting they have hunted me as a sparrow, Who are mine enemies without cause;

53 They have made fast in a pit my life, And cast a stone over me;

54 Flowed have waters over my head; I said, I am cut off.

55 I called on thy name, Jehovah, From the deepest pit:

56 My voice hast thou heard; close not thine ear To my groaning, to my cry.

57 Thou didst draw nigh in the day I cried to thee, Thou didst say, "Fear not."

58 Thou hast, O Lord, pleaded the cause of my soul, Thou hast redeemed my life.

59 Thou hast seen, e Jehovah, my oppression; Defend my cause.

60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance's, All their counsels against me.

61 Thou hast heard, O Jehovah, their reproaches, All their counsels against me,-

62 The speeches of those who rose against me, And their words against me daily.

63 Look on their sitting down and their rising up; I am their song.

64 Render to them their reward, O Jehovah, According to the work of their hands.

65 Give them blindness of heart; Thy curse be on them.

66 Pursue them in wrath, and destroy them From under the heavens of Jehovah.