3:1 | I am the man who has seen affliction Because of the rod of His wrath.

3:2 | He has driven me and made me walk In darkness and not in light.

3:3 | Surely against me He has turned His hand Repeatedly all the day.

3:4 | He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away, He has broken my bones.

3:5 | He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.

3:6 | In dark places He has made me dwell, Like those who have long been dead.

3:7 | He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.

3:8 | Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.

3:9 | He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

3:10 | He is to me like a bear lying in wait, Like a lion in secret places.

3:11 | He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces; He has made me desolate.

3:12 | He bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow.

3:13 | He made the arrows of His quiver To enter into my inward parts.

3:14 | I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their mocking song all the day.

3:15 | He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood.

3:16 | He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.

3:17 | My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness.

3:18 | So I say, "My strength has perished, And so has my hope from the LORD."

3:19 | Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

3:20 | Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me.

3:21 | This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.

3:23 | They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

3:24 | "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him."

3:25 | The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him.

3:26 | It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the LORD.

3:27 | It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth.

3:28 | Let him sit alone and be silent Since He has laid it on him.

3:29 | Let him put his mouth in the dust, Perhaps there is hope.

3:30 | Let him give his cheek to the smiter, Let him be filled with reproach.

3:31 | For the Lord will not reject forever,

3:32 | For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness.

3:33 | For He does not afflict willingly Or grieve the sons of men.

3:34 | To crush under His feet All the prisoners of the land,

3:35 | To deprive a man of justice In the presence of the Most High,

3:36 | To defraud a man in his lawsuit--Of these things the Lord does not approve.

3:37 | Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it?

3:38 | Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth?

3:39 | Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins?

3:40 | Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the LORD.

3:41 | We lift up our heart and hands Toward 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 have not spared.

3:44 | You have covered Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through.

3:45 | You have made us mere offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.

3:46 | All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

3:47 | Panic and pitfall have befallen us, Devastation and destruction;

3:48 | My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

3:49 | My eyes pour down unceasingly, Without stopping,

3:50 | Until the LORD looks down And sees from heaven.

3:51 | My eyes bring pain 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 have silenced me in the pit And have placed a stone on me.

3:54 | Waters flowed over my head; I said, "I am cut off!"

3:55 | I called on Your name, O LORD, Out of the lowest pit.

3:56 | You have heard my voice, "Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From my cry for help."

3:57 | You drew near when I called on You; You said, "Do not fear!"

3:59 | O LORD, You have seen my oppression; 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 assailants and their whispering Are against me all day long.

3:63 | Look on their sitting and their rising; I am their mocking song.

3:64 | You will recompense them, O LORD, According to the work of their hands.

3:65 | You will give them hardness of heart, Your curse will be on them.

3:66 | You will pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the heavens of the LORD!