3:1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. 3:2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness and not in light. 3:3 Surely he turns his hand against me, again and again all the day. 3:4He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones. 3:5 He has built against me and encompassed me with gall and travail. 3:6 He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those who have been dead of old.
3:7 He has walled me around, that I cannot go forth. He has made my chain heavy. 3:8 Yes, when I cry and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. 3:9 He has walled up my ways with hewn stone. He has made my paths crooked.
3:10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in concealed places. 3:11 He has turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces. He has made me desolate.3:12 He has bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. 3:13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins. 3:14 I have become a laughing-stock to all my people and their song all the day.
3:15 He has filled me with bitterness. He has sated me with wormwood. 3:16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones. He has covered me with ashes. 3:17 And you have removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity. 3:18 And I said, My strength has perished and my expectation from Jehovah.
3:19 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. 3:20 My soul still has them in remembrance and is bowed down within me.
3:21 This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope: 3:22 It is of Jehovah's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions do not fail. 3:23 They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. 3:24 Jehovah is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.
3:25 Jehovah is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 3:26 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Jehovah. 3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 3:28 Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it upon him. 3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, perhaps there may be hope.3:30 Let him give his cheek to him who slays him. Let him be filled full with reproach.
3:31 For the Lord will not cast off everlasting. 3:32 For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.3:33 For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the sons of men. 3:34 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth, 3:35 to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, 3:36 to subvert a man in his cause, the Lord does not approve.
3:37 Who is he that says and it happens, when the Lord does not command it? 3:38 Out of the mouth of the Most High does there not come evil and good?
3:39 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 3:40 Let us search and try our ways and turn again to Jehovah. 3:41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
3:42 We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned. 3:43 You have covered with anger and pursued us. You have slain; you have not pitied. 3:44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
3:45 You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples. 3:46 All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us. 3:47 Fear and the pit have come upon us, devastation and destruction.
3:48 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 3:49 My eye pours down and does not cease, without any intermission, 3:50 till Jehovah looks down and beholds from heaven. 3:51 My eye stirs my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
3:52 They have chased me grievously like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause. 3:53 They have cut off my life in the pit and have cast a stone upon me. 3:54 Waters flowed over my head. I said, I am cut off.
3:55 I called upon your name, O Jehovah, out of the lowest pit. 3:56 You heard my voice. Do not hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry. 3:57 You drew near in the day that I called upon you. You said, Do not fear.
3:58 O Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul. You have redeemed my life. 3:59 O Jehovah, you have seen my wrong. Judge you my cause.
3:60 You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me. 3:61 You have heard their reproach, O Jehovah and all their devices against me, 3:62 the lips of those who rose up against me and their meditation is against me all the day. 3:63 Behold their sitting down and their rising up. I am their song.
3:64 You will render to them a recompense, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands. 3:65You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them. 3:66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of Jehovah.